No to an economy of exclusion
[53-54]No to the new idolatry of money [55-56]No to a financial system
which rules rather than serves [57-58]No to the inequality which spawns
violence [59-60]Some cultural challenges [61-67]Challenges to
inculturating the faith [68-70]Challenges from urban cultures
[71-75]

II. TEMPTATIONS FACED BY PASTORAL WORKERS
[76-109]

Yes to the challenge of a missionary
spirituality [78-80]No to selfishness and spiritual sloth [81-83]No to a
sterile pessimism [84-86]Yes to the new relationships brought by Christ
[87-92]No to spiritual worldliness [93-97]No to warring among ourselves
[98-101]Other ecclesial challenges [102-109]

CHAPTER THREETHE PROCLAMATION OF THE
GOSPEL [110]

I. THE ENTIRE PEOPLE OF GOD PROCLAIMS THE
GOSPEL [111-134]

A people for everyone [112-114] A
people of many faces [115-118]We are all missionary disciples
[119-121]The evangelizing power of popular piety [122-126]Person to
person [127-129] Charisms at the service of a communion which evangelizes
[130-131]Culture, thought and education [132-134]

II. THE HOMILY [135-144]

The liturgical context [137-138]A
mother’s conversation [139-141]Words which set hearts on fire
[142-144]

III. PREPARING TO PREACH
[145-159]

Reverence for truth
[146-148]Personalizing the word [149-151]Spiritual reading
[152-153]An ear to the people [154-155]Homiletic resources
[156-159]

IV. EVANGELIZATION AND THE DEEPER
UNDERSTANDING OF THE KERYGMA [160- 175]

Kerygmatic and mystagogical catechesis
[163-168]Personal accompaniment in processes of growth [169-173]Centred
on the word of God [174-175]

CHAPTER FOURTHE SOCIAL DIMENSION OF
EVANGELIZATION [176]

I. COMMUNAL AND SOCIETAL REPERCUSSIONS OF
THE KERYGMA [177-185]

Confession of faith and commitment to
society [178-179] The kingdom and its challenge [180-181]The Church’s
teaching on social questions [182-185]

II. THE INCLUSION OF THE POOR IN SOCIETY
[186-216]

In union with God, we hear a plea
[187-192]Fidelity to the Gospel, lest we run in vain [193-196]The
special place of the poor in God’s people [197-201]The economy and the
distribution of income [202-208]Concern for the vulnerable
[209-216]

III. THE COMMON GOOD AND PEACE IN SOCIETY
[217-237]

Time is greater than space
[222-225]Unity prevails over conflict [226-230]Realities are more
important than ideas [231-233]The whole is greater than the part
[234-237]

Personal encounter with the saving love
of Jesus [264-267]The spiritual savour of being a people [268-274]The
mysterious working of the risen Christ and his Spirit [275-280]The
missionary power of intercessory prayer [281-283]

II. MARY, MOTHER OF EVANGELIZATION
[284-288]

Jesus’ gift to his people
[285-286]Star of the new evangelization [287-288]

1. THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL fills the hearts
and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation
are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy
is constantly born anew. In this Exhortation I wish to encourage the Christian
faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelization marked by this joy,
while pointing out new paths for the Church’s journey in years to
come.

I. A JOY EVER NEW, A JOY WHICH IS
SHARED

2. The great danger in today’s world,
pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a
complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and
a blunted conscience. Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own
interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the
poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love is no longer
felt, and the desire to do good fades. This is a very real danger for believers
too. Many fall prey to it, and end up resentful, angry and listless. That is no
way to live a dignified and fulfilled life; it is not God’s will for us, nor is
it the life in the Spirit which has its source in the heart of the risen
Christ.

3. I invite all Christians, everywhere, at
this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least
an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this
unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for
him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”.[1] The
Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step
towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with
open arms. Now is the time to say to Jesus: “Lord, I have let myself be
deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned your love, yet here I am once more,
to renew my covenant with you. I need you. Save me once again, Lord, take me
once more into your redeeming embrace”. How good it feels to come back to him
whenever we are lost! Let me say this once more: God never tires of forgiving
us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy. Christ, who told us to
forgive one another “seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22) has given us his example:
he has forgiven us seventy times seven. Time and time again he bears us on his
shoulders. No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless
and unfailing love. With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always
capable of restoring our joy, he makes it possible for us to lift up our heads
and to start anew. Let us not flee from the resurrection of Jesus, let us never
give up, come what will. May nothing inspire more than his life, which impels us
onwards!

4. The books of the Old Testament predicted
that the joy of salvation would abound in messianic times. The prophet Isaiah
exultantly salutes the awaited Messiah: “You have multiplied the nation, you
have increased its joy” (9:3). He exhorts those who dwell on Zion to go forth to
meet him with song: “Shout aloud and sing for joy!” (12:6). The prophet tells
those who have already seen him from afar to bring the message to others: “Get
you up to a high mountain, O herald of good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice
with strength, O herald of good tidings to Jerusalem” (40:9). All creation
shares in the joy of salvation: “Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth!
Break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people,
and will have compassion on his suffering ones” (49:13).

Zechariah, looking to the day of the Lord,
invites the people to acclaim the king who comes “humble and riding on a
donkey”: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he”
(9:9).

Perhaps the most exciting invitation is that
of the prophet Zephaniah, who presents God with his people in the midst of a
celebration overflowing with the joy of salvation. I find it thrilling to reread
this text: “The Lord, your God is in your midst, a warrior who gives you the
victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing, as on a day of festival”
(3:17).

This is the joy which we experience daily,
amid the little things of life, as a response to the loving invitation of God
our Father: “My child, treat yourself well, according to your means… Do not
deprive yourself of the day’s enjoyment” (Sir 14:11, 14). What tender paternal
love echoes in these words!

5. The Gospel, radiant with the glory of
Christ’s cross, constantly invites us to rejoice. A few examples will suffice.
“Rejoice!” is the angel’s greeting to Mary (Lk 1:28). Mary’s visit to Elizabeth
makes John leap for joy in his mother’s womb (cf. Lk 1:41). In her song of
praise, Mary proclaims: “My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour” (Lk 1:47). When
Jesus begins his ministry, John cries out: “For this reason, my joy has been
fulfilled” (Jn 3:29). Jesus himself “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit” (Lk 10:21).
His message brings us joy: “I have said these things to you, so that my joy may
be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (Jn 15:11). Our Christian joy
drinks of his brimming heart. He promises his disciples: “You will be sorrowful,
but your sorrow will turn into joy” (Jn 16:20). He then goes on to say: “But I
will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy
from you” (Jn 16:22). The disciples “rejoiced” (Jn 20:20) at the sight of the
risen Christ. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that the first Christians “ate
their food with glad and generous hearts” (2:46). Wherever the disciples went,
“there was great joy” (8:8); even amid persecution they continued to be “filled
with joy” (13:52). The newly baptized eunuch “went on his way rejoicing” (8:39),
while Paul’s jailer “and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a
believer in God” (16:34). Why should we not also enter into this great stream of
joy?

6. There are Christians whose lives seem
like Lent without Easter. I realize of course that joy is not expressed the same
way at all times in life, especially at moments of great difficulty. Joy adapts
and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our
personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely
loved. I understand the grief of people who have to endure great suffering, yet
slowly but surely we all have to let the joy of faith slowly revive as a quiet
yet firm trust, even amid the greatest distress: “My soul is bereft of peace; I
have forgotten what happiness is… But this I call to mind, and therefore I have
hope: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an
end; they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness… It is good that one
should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lam 3:17, 21-23,
26).

7. Sometimes we are tempted to find excuses
and complain, acting as if we could only be happy if a thousand conditions were
met. To some extent this is because our “technological society has succeeded in
multiplying occasions of pleasure, yet has found it very difficult to engender
joy”.[2] I can say that the most beautiful and natural expressions of joy which
I have seen in my life were in poor people who had little to hold on to. I also
think of the real joy shown by others who, even amid pressing professional
obligations, were able to preserve, in detachment and simplicity, a heart full
of faith. In their own way, all these instances of joy flow from the infinite
love of God, who has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ. I never tire of
repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the
Gospel: “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty
idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon
and a decisive direction”.[3]

8. Thanks solely to this encounter – or
renewed encounter – with God’s love, which blossoms into an enriching
friendship, we are liberated from our narrowness and self-absorption. We become
fully human when we become more than human, when we let God bring us beyond
ourselves in order to attain the fullest truth of our being. Here we find the
source and inspiration of all our efforts at evangelization. For if we have
received the love which restores meaning to our lives, how can we fail to share
that love with others?

II. THE DELIGHTFUL AND COMFORTING JOY OF
EVANGELIZING

9. Goodness always tends to spread. Every
authentic experience of truth and goodness seeks by its very nature to grow
within us, and any person who has experienced a profound liberation becomes more
sensitive to the needs of others. As it expands, goodness takes root and
develops. If we wish to lead a dignified and fulfilling life, we have to reach
out to others and seek their good. In this sense, several sayings of Saint Paul
will not surprise us: “The love of Christ urges us on” (2 Cor 5:14); “Woe to me
if I do not proclaim the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16).

10. The Gospel offers us the chance to live
life on a higher plane, but with no less intensity: “Life grows by being given
away, and it weakens in isolation and comfort. Indeed, those who enjoy life most
are those who leave security on the shore and become excited by the mission of
communicating life to others”.[4] When the Church summons Christians to take up
the task of evangelization, she is simply pointing to the source of authentic
personal fulfilment. For “here we discover a profound law of reality: that life
is attained and matures in the measure that it is offered up in order to give
life to others. This is certainly what mission means”.[5] Consequently, an
evangelizer must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral!
Let us recover and deepen our enthusiasm, that “delightful and comforting joy of
evangelizing, even when it is in tears that we must sow… And may the world of
our time, which is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be
enabled to receive the good news not from evangelizers who are dejected,
discouraged, impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives
glow with fervour, who have first received the joy of Christ”.[6]

Eternal newness

11. A renewal of preaching can offer
believers, as well as the lukewarm and the non-practising, new joy in the faith
and fruitfulness in the work of evangelization. The heart of its message will
always be the same: the God who revealed his immense love in the crucified and
risen Christ. God constantly renews his faithful ones, whatever their age: “They
shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they
shall walk and not be faint” (Is 40:31). Christ is the “eternal Gospel” (Rev
14:6); he “is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8), yet his
riches and beauty are inexhaustible. He is for ever young and a constant source
of newness. The Church never fails to be amazed at “the depth of the riches and
wisdom and knowledge of God” (Rom 11:33). Saint John of the Cross says that “the
thicket of God’s wisdom and knowledge is so deep and so broad that the soul,
however much it has come to know of it, can always penetrate deeper within
it”.[7] Or as Saint Irenaeus writes: “By his coming, Christ brought with him all
newness”.[8] With this freshness he is always able to renew our lives and our
communities, and even if the Christian message has known periods of darkness and
ecclesial weakness, it will never grow old. Jesus can also break through the
dull categories with which we would enclose him and he constantly amazes us by
his divine creativity. Whenever we make the effort to return to the source and
to recover the original freshness of the Gospel, new avenues arise, new paths of
creativity open up, with different forms of expression, more eloquent signs and
words with new meaning for today’s world. Every form of authentic evangelization
is always “new”.

12. Though it is true that this mission
demands great generosity on our part, it would be wrong to see it as a heroic
individual undertaking, for it is first and foremost the Lord’s work, surpassing
anything which we can see and understand. Jesus is “the first and greatest
evangelizer”.[9] In every activity of evangelization, the primacy always belongs
to God, who has called us to cooperate with him and who leads us on by by the
power of his Spirit. The real newness is the newness which God himself
mysteriously brings about and inspires, provokes, guides and accompanies in a
thousand ways. The life of the Church should always reveal clearly that God
takes the initiative, that “he has loved us first” (1 Jn 4:19) and that he alone
“gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:7). This conviction enables us to maintain a spirit
of joy in the midst of a task so demanding and challenging that it engages our
entire life. God asks everything of us, yet at the same time he offers
everything to us.

13. Nor should we see the newness of this
mission as entailing a kind of displacement or forgetfulness of the living
history which surrounds us and carries us forward. Memory is a dimension of our
faith which we might call “deuteronomic”, not unlike the memory of Israel
itself. Jesus leaves us the Eucharist as the Church’s daily remembrance of, and
deeper sharing in, the event of his Passover (cf. Lk 22:19). The joy of
evangelizing always arises from grateful remembrance: it is a grace which we
constantly need to implore. The apostles never forgot the moment when Jesus
touched their hearts: “It was about four o’clock in the afternoon” (Jn 1:39).
Together with Jesus, this remembrance makes present to us “a great cloud of
witnesses” (Heb 12:1), some of whom, as believers, we recall with great
joy: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God” (Heb 13:7).
Some of them were ordinary people who were close to us and introduced us to the
life of faith: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in
your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice” (2 Tim 1:5). The believer is
essentially “one who remembers”.

III. THE NEW EVANGELIZATION FOR THE
TRANSMISSION OF THE FAITH

14. Attentive to the promptings of the Holy
Spirit who helps us together to read the signs of the times, the XIII Ordinary
General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops gathered from 7-28 October 2012 to
discuss the theme: The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian
Faith. The Synod reaffirmed that the new evangelization is a summons addressed
to all and that it is carried out in three principal settings.[10]

In first place, we can mention the area of
ordinary pastoral ministry, which is “animated by the fire of the Spirit, so as
to inflame the hearts of the faithful who regularly take part in community
worship and gather on the Lord’s day to be nourished by his word and by the
bread of eternal life”.[11] In this category we can also include those members
of faithful who preserve a deep and sincere faith, expressing it in different
ways, but seldom taking part in worship. Ordinary pastoral ministry seeks to
help believers to grow spiritually so that they can respond to God’s love ever
more fully in their lives.

A second area is that of “the baptized whose
lives do not reflect the demands of Baptism”,[12] who lack a meaningful
relationship to the Church and no longer experience the consolation born of
faith. The Church, in her maternal concern, tries to help them experience a
conversion which will restore the joy of faith to their hearts and inspire a
commitment to the Gospel.

Lastly, we cannot forget that evangelization
is first and foremost about preaching the Gospel to those who do not know Jesus
Christ or who have always rejected him. Many of these are quietly seeking God,
led by a yearning to see his face, even in countries of ancient Christian
tradition. All of them have a right to receive the Gospel. Christians have the
duty to proclaim the Gospel without excluding anyone. Instead of seeming to
impose new obligations, they should appear as people who wish to share their
joy, who point to a horizon of beauty and who invite others to a delicious
banquet. It is not by proselytizing that the Church grows, but “by
attraction”.[13]

15. John Paul II asked us to recognize that
“there must be no lessening of the impetus to preach the Gospel” to those who
are far from Christ, “because this is the first task of the Church”.[14] Indeed,
“today missionary activity still represents the greatest challenge for the
Church”[15] and “the missionary task must remain foremost”.[16] What would
happen if we were to take these words seriously? We would realize that
missionary outreach is paradigmatic for all the Church’s activity. Along these
lines the Latin American bishops stated that we “cannot passively and calmly
wait in our church buildings”;[17] we need to move “from a pastoral ministry of
mere conservation to a decidedly missionary pastoral ministry”.[18] This task
continues to be a source of immense joy for the Church: “Just so, I tell you,
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than ninety-nine
righteous persons who need no repentance” (Lk 15:7).

The scope and limits of this
Exhortation

16. I was happy to take up the request of
the Fathers of the Synod to write this Exhortation.[19] In so doing, I am
reaping the rich fruits of the Synod’s labours. In addition, I have sought
advice from a number of people and I intend to express my own concerns about
this particular chapter of the Church’s work of evangelization. Countless issues
involving evangelization today might be discussed here, but I have chosen not to
explore these many questions which call for further reflection and study. Nor do
I believe that the papal magisterium should be expected to offer a definitive or
complete word on every question which affects the Church and the world. It is
not advisable for the Pope to take the place of local Bishops in the discernment
of every issue which arises in their territory. In this sense, I am conscious of
the need to promote a sound “decentralization”.

17. Here I have chosen to present some guidelines which can
encourage and guide the whole Church in a new phase of evangelization, one
marked by enthusiasm and vitality. In this context, and on the basis of the
teaching of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, I have decided, among other
themes, to discuss at length the following questions:

a) the reform of the Church in her missionary outreach; b) the temptations faced by pastoral workers; c) the Church, understood as the entire People of God
which evangelizes; d) the homily and its
preparation; e) the inclusion of the poor in
society; f) peace and dialogue within society; g) the spiritual motivations for
mission.

18. I have dealt extensively with these topics, with a
detail which some may find excessive. But I have done so, not with the intention
of providing an exhaustive treatise but simply as a way of showing their
important practical implications for the Church’s mission today. All of them
help give shape to a definite style of evangelization which I ask you to adopt
in every activity which you undertake. In this way, we can take up, amid our
daily efforts, the biblical exhortation: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I
will say: Rejoice” (Phil 4:4).

CHAPTER
ONE

THE CHURCH’S MISSIONARY
TRANSFORMATION

19. Evangelization takes place in obedience to the
missionary mandate of Jesus: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). In these
verses we see how the risen Christ sent his followers to preach the Gospel in
every time and place, so that faith in him might spread to every corner of the
earth.

I. A CHURCH WHICH GOES
FORTH

20. The word of God constantly shows us how God challenges
those who believe in him “to go forth”. Abraham received the call to set out for
a new land (cf. Gen 12:1-3). Moses heard God’s call: “Go, I send you” (Ex 3:10)
and led the people towards the promised land (cf. Ex 3:17). To Jeremiah, God
says: “To all whom I send you, you shall go” (Jer 1:7). In our day Jesus’
command to “go and make disciples” echoes in the changing scenarios and ever new
challenges to the Church’s mission of evangelization, and all of us are called
to take part in this new missionary “going forth”. Each Christian and every
community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are
asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach
all the “peripheries” in need of the light of the Gospel.

21. The Gospel joy which enlivens the community of
disciples is a missionary joy. The seventy-two disciples felt it as they
returned from their mission (cf. Lk 10:17). Jesus felt it when he rejoiced in
the Holy Spirit and praised the Father for revealing himself to the poor and the
little ones (cf. Lk 10:21). It was felt by the first converts who marvelled to
hear the apostles preaching “in the native language of each” (Acts 2:6) on the
day of Pentecost. This joy is a sign that the Gospel has been proclaimed and is
bearing fruit. Yet the drive to go forth and give, to go out from ourselves, to
keep pressing forward in our sowing of the good seed, remains ever present. The
Lord says: “Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for
that is why I came out” (Mk 1:38). Once the seed has been sown in one place,
Jesus does not stay behind to explain things or to perform more signs; the
Spirit moves him to go forth to other towns.

22. God’s word is unpredictable in its power. The Gospel
speaks of a seed which, once sown, grows by itself, even as the farmer sleeps
(Mk 4:26-29). The Church has to accept this unruly freedom of the word, which
accomplishes what it wills in ways that surpass our calculations and ways of
thinking.

23. The Church’s closeness to Jesus is part of a common
journey; “communion and mission are profoundly interconnected”.[20] In fidelity
to the example of the Master, it is vitally important for the Church today to go
forth and preach the Gospel to all: to all places, on all occasions, without
hesitation, reluctance or fear. The joy of the Gospel is for all people: no one
can be excluded. That is what the angel proclaimed to the shepherds in
Bethlehem: “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy
which will come to all the people (Lk 2:10). The Book of Revelation speaks of
“an eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and
tongue and tribe and people (Rev 14:6).

Taking the first step, being
involved and supportive, bearing fruit and rejoicing

24. The Church which “goes forth” is a community of
missionary disciples who take the first step, who are involved and supportive,
who bear fruit and rejoice. An evangelizing community knows that the Lord has
taken the initiative, he has loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:19), and therefore we
can move forward, boldly take the initiative, go out to others, seek those who
have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast. Such a
community has an endless desire to show mercy, the fruit of its own experience
of the power of the Father’s infinite mercy. Let us try a little harder to take
the first step and to become involved. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.
The Lord gets involved and he involves his own, as he kneels to wash their feet.
He tells his disciples: “You will be blessed if you do this” (Jn 13:17). An
evangelizing community gets involved by word and deed in people’s daily lives;
it bridges distances, it is willing to abase itself if necessary, and it
embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others.
Evangelizers thus take on the “smell of the sheep” and the sheep are willing to
hear their voice. An evangelizing community is also supportive, standing by
people at every step of the way, no matter how difficult or lengthy this may
prove to be. It is familiar with patient expectation and apostolic endurance.
Evangelization consists mostly of patience and disregard for constraints of
time. Faithful to the Lord’s gift, it also bears fruit. An evangelizing
community is always concerned with fruit, because the Lord wants her to be
fruitful. It cares for the grain and does not grow impatient at the weeds. The
sower, when he sees weeds sprouting among the grain does not grumble or
overreact. He or she finds a way to let the word take flesh in a particular
situation and bear fruits of new life, however imperfect or incomplete these may
appear. The disciple is ready to put his or her whole life on the line, even to
accepting martyrdom, in bearing witness to Jesus Christ, yet the goal is not to
make enemies but to see God’s word accepted and its capacity for liberation and
renewal revealed. Finally an evangelizing community is filled with joy; it knows
how to rejoice always. It celebrates at every small victory, every step forward
in the work of evangelization. Evangelization with joy becomes beauty in the
liturgy, as part of our daily concern to spread goodness. The Church evangelizes
and is herself evangelized through the beauty of the liturgy, which is both a
celebration of the task of evangelization and the source of her renewed
self-giving.

II. PASTORAL ACTIVITY AND
CONVERSION

25. I am aware that nowadays documents do not arouse the
same interest as in the past and that they are quickly forgotten. Nevertheless,
I want to emphasize that what I am trying to express here has a programmatic
significance and important consequences. I hope that all communities will devote
the necessary effort to advancing along the path of a pastoral and missionary
conversion which cannot leave things as they presently are. “Mere
administration” can no longer be enough.[21] Throughout the world, let us be
“permanently in a state of mission”.[22]

26. Paul VI invited us to deepen the call to renewal and to
make it clear that renewal does not only concern individuals but the entire
Church. Let us return to a memorable text which continues to challenge us. “The
Church must look with penetrating eyes within herself, ponder the mystery of her
own being… This vivid and lively self-awareness inevitably leads to a comparison
between the ideal image of the Church as Christ envisaged her and loved her as
his holy and spotless bride (cf. Eph 5:27), and the actual image which the
Church presents to the world today... This is the source of the Church’s heroic
and impatient struggle for renewal: the struggle to correct those flaws
introduced by her members which her own self-examination, mirroring her
exemplar, Christ, points out to her and condemns”.[23] The Second Vatican
Council presented ecclesial conversion as openness to a constant self-renewal
born of fidelity to Jesus Christ: “Every renewal of the Church essentially
consists in an increase of fidelity to her own calling… Christ summons the
Church as she goes her pilgrim way… to that continual reformation of which she
always has need, in so far as she is a human institution here on earth”.[24]

There are ecclesial structures which can hamper efforts at
evangelization, yet even good structures are only helpful when there is a life
constantly driving, sustaining and assessing them. Without new life and an
authentic evangelical spirit, without the Church’s “fidelity to her own
calling”, any new structure will soon prove ineffective.

An ecclesial renewal which
cannot be deferred

27. I dream of a “missionary option”, that is, a missionary
impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways
of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably
channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her
self-preservation. The renewal of structures demanded by pastoral conversion can
only be understood in this light: as part of an effort to make them more
mission-oriented, to make ordinary pastoral activity on every level more
inclusive and open, to inspire in pastoral workers a constant desire to go forth
and in this way to elicit a positive response from all those whom Jesus summons
to friendship with him. As John Paul II once said to the Bishops of Oceania:
“All renewal in the Church must have mission as its goal if it is not to fall
prey to a kind of ecclesial introversion”.[25]

28. The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely
because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours
depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the
community. While certainly not the only institution which evangelizes, if it
proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be “the
Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters”.[26] This
presumes that it really is in contact with the homes and the lives of its
people, and does not become a useless structure out of touch with people or a
self-absorbed cluster made up of a chosen few. The parish is the presence of the
Church in a given territory, an environment for hearing God’s word, for growth
in the Christian life, for dialogue, proclamation, charitable outreach, worship
and celebration.[27] In all its activities the parish encourages and trains its
members to be evangelizers.[28] It is a community of communities, a sanctuary
where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey, and a centre of
constant missionary outreach. We must admit, though, that the call to review and
renew our parishes has not yet sufficed to bring them nearer to people, to make
them environments of living communion and participation, and to make them
completely mission-oriented.

29. Other Church institutions, basic communities and small
communities, movements, and forms of association are a source of enrichment for
the Church, raised up by the Spirit for evangelizing different areas and
sectors. Frequently they bring a new evangelizing fervour and a new capacity for
dialogue with the world whereby the Church is renewed. But it will prove
beneficial for them not to lose contact with the rich reality of the local
parish and to participate readily in the overall pastoral activity of the
particular Church.[29] This kind of integration will prevent them from
concentrating only on part of the Gospel or the Church, or becoming nomads
without roots.

30. Each particular Church, as a portion of the Catholic
Church under the leadership of its bishop, is likewise called to missionary
conversion. It is the primary subject of evangelization,[30] since it is the
concrete manifestation of the one Church in one specific place, and in it “the
one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of Christ is truly present and
operative”.[31] It is the Church incarnate in a certain place, equipped with all
the means of salvation bestowed by Christ, but with local features. Its joy in
communicating Jesus Christ is expressed both by a concern to preach him to areas
in greater need and in constantly going forth to the outskirts of its own
territory or towards new sociocultural settings.[32] Wherever the need for the
light and the life of the Risen Christ is greatest, it will want to be
there.[33] To make this missionary impulse ever more focused, generous and
fruitful, I encourage each particular Church to undertake a resolute process of
discernment, purification and reform.

31. The bishop must always foster this missionary communion
in his diocesan Church, following the ideal of the first Christian communities,
in which the believers were of one heart and one soul (cf. Acts 4:32). To do so,
he will sometimes go before his people, pointing the way and keeping their hope
vibrant. At other times, he will simply be in their midst with his unassuming
and merciful presence. At yet other times, he will have to walk after them,
helping those who lag behind and – above all – allowing the flock to strike out
on new paths. In his mission of fostering a dynamic, open and missionary
communion, he will have to encourage and develop the means of participation
proposed in the Code of Canon Law,[34] and other forms of pastoral dialogue, out
of a desire to listen to everyone and not simply to those who would tell him
what he would like to hear. Yet the principal aim of these participatory
processes should not be ecclesiastical organization but rather the missionary
aspiration of reaching everyone.

32. Since I am called to put into practice what I ask of
others, I too must think about a conversion of the papacy. It is my duty, as the
Bishop of Rome, to be open to suggestions which can help make the exercise of my
ministry more faithful to the meaning which Jesus Christ wished to give it and
to the present needs of evangelization. Pope John Paul II asked for help in
finding “a way of exercising the primacy which, while in no way renouncing what
is essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to a new situation”.[35] We
have made little progress in this regard. The papacy and the central structures
of the universal Church also need to hear the call to pastoral conversion. The
Second Vatican Council stated that, like the ancient patriarchal Churches,
episcopal conferences are in a position “to contribute in many and fruitful ways
to the concrete realization of the collegial spirit”.[36] Yet this desire has
not been fully realized, since a juridical status of episcopal conferences which
would see them as subjects of specific attributions, including genuine doctrinal
authority, has not yet been sufficiently elaborated.[37] Excessive
centralization, rather than proving helpful, complicates the Church’s life and
her missionary outreach.

33. Pastoral ministry in a missionary key seeks to abandon
the complacent attitude that says: “We have always done it this way”. I invite
everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the goals,
structures, style and methods of evangelization in their respective communities.
A proposal of goals without an adequate communal search for the means of
achieving them will inevitably prove illusory. I encourage everyone to apply the
guidelines found in this document generously and courageously, without
inhibitions or fear. The important thing is to not walk alone, but to rely on
each other as brothers and sisters, and especially under the leadership of the
bishops, in a wise and realistic pastoral discernment.

III. FROM THE HEART OF THE
GOSPEL

34. If we attempt to put all things in a missionary key,
this will also affect the way we communicate the message. In today’s world of
instant communication and occasionally biased media coverage, the message we
preach runs a greater risk of being distorted or reduced to some of its
secondary aspects. In this way certain issues which are part of the Church’s
moral teaching are taken out of the context which gives them their meaning. The
biggest problem is when the message we preach then seems identified with those
secondary aspects which, important as they are, do not in and of themselves
convey the heart of Christ’s message. We need to be realistic and not assume
that our audience understands the full background to what we are saying, or is
capable of relating what we say to the very heart of the Gospel which gives it
meaning, beauty and attractiveness.

35. Pastoral ministry in a missionary style is not obsessed
with the disjointed transmission of a multitude of doctrines to be insistently
imposed. When we adopt a pastoral goal and a missionary style which would
actually reach everyone without exception or exclusion, the message has to
concentrate on the essentials, on what is most beautiful, most grand, most
appealing and at the same time most necessary. The message is simplified, while
losing none of its depth and truth, and thus becomes all the more forceful and
convincing.

36. All revealed truths derive from the same divine source
and are to be believed with the same faith, yet some of them are more important
for giving direct expression to the heart of the Gospel. In this basic core,
what shines forth is the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus
Christ who died and rose from the dead. In this sense, the Second Vatican
Council explained, “in Catholic doctrine there exists an order or a ‘hierarchy’
of truths, since they vary in their relation to the foundation of the Christian
faith”.[38] This holds true as much for the dogmas of faith as for the whole
corpus of the Church’s teaching, including her moral
teaching.

37. Saint Thomas Aquinas taught that the Church’s moral
teaching has its own “hierarchy”, in the virtues and in the acts which proceed
from them.[39] What counts above all else is “faith working through love” (Gal
5:6). Works of love directed to one’s neighbour are the most perfect external
manifestation of the interior grace of the Spirit: “The foundation of the New
Law is in the grace of the Holy Spirit, who is manifested in the faith which
works through love”.[40] Thomas thus explains that, as far as external works are
concerned, mercy is the greatest of all the virtues: “In itself mercy is the
greatest of the virtues, since all the others revolve around it and, more than
this, it makes up for their deficiencies. This is particular to the superior
virtue, and as such it is proper to God to have mercy, through which his
omnipotence is manifested to the greatest degree”.[41]

38. It is important to draw out the pastoral consequences
of the Council’s teaching, which reflects an ancient conviction of the Church.
First, it needs to be said that in preaching the Gospel a fitting sense of
proportion has to be maintained. This would be seen in the frequency with which
certain themes are brought up and in the emphasis given to them in preaching.
For example, if in the course of the liturgical year a parish priest speaks
about temperance ten times but only mentions charity or justice two or three
times, an imbalance results, and precisely those virtues which ought to be most
present in preaching and catechesis are overlooked. The same thing happens when
we speak more about law than about grace, more about the Church than about
Christ, more about the Pope than about God’s word.

39. Just as the organic unity existing among the virtues
means that no one of them can be excluded from the Christian ideal, so no truth
may be denied. The integrity of the Gospel message must not be deformed. What is
more, each truth is better understood when related to the harmonious totality of
the Christian message; in this context all of the truths are important and
illumine one another. When preaching is faithful to the Gospel, the centrality
of certain truths is evident and it becomes clear that Christian morality is not
a form of stoicism, or self-denial, or merely a practical philosophy or a
catalogue of sins and faults. Before all else, the Gospel invites us to respond
to the God of love who saves us, to see God in others and to go forth from
ourselves to seek the good of others. Under no circumstance can this invitation
be obscured! All of the virtues are at the service of this response of love. If
this invitation does not radiate forcefully and attractively, the edifice of the
Church’s moral teaching risks becoming a house of cards, and this is our
greatest risk. It would mean that it is not the Gospel which is being preached,
but certain doctrinal or moral points based on specific ideological options. The
message will run the risk of losing its freshness and will cease to have “the
fragrance of the Gospel”.

IV. A MISSION EMBODIED WITHIN
HUMAN LIMITS

40. The Church is herself a missionary disciple; she needs
to grow in her interpretation of the revealed word and in her understanding of
truth. It is the task of exegetes and theologians to help “the judgment of the
Church to mature”.[42] The other sciences also help to accomplish this, each in
its own way. With reference to the social sciences, for example, John Paul II
said that the Church values their research, which helps her “to derive concrete
indications helpful for her magisterial mission”.[43] Within the Church
countless issues are being studied and reflected upon with great freedom.
Differing currents of thought in philosophy, theology and pastoral practice, if
open to being reconciled by the Spirit in respect and love, can enable the
Church to grow, since all of them help to express more clearly the immense
riches of God’s word. For those who long for a monolithic body of doctrine
guarded by all and leaving no room for nuance, this might appear as undesirable
and leading to confusion. But in fact such variety serves to bring out and
develop different facets of the inexhaustible riches of the
Gospel.[44]

41. At the same time, today’s vast and rapid cultural
changes demand that we constantly seek ways of expressing unchanging truths in a
language which brings out their abiding newness. “The deposit of the faith is
one thing... the way it is expressed is another”.[45] There are times when the
faithful, in listening to completely orthodox language, take away something
alien to the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ, because that language is alien to
their own way of speaking to and understanding one another. With the holy intent
of communicating the truth about God and humanity, we sometimes give them a
false god or a human ideal which is not really Christian. In this way, we hold
fast to a formulation while failing to convey its substance. This is the
greatest danger. Let us never forget that “the expression of truth can take
different forms. The renewal of these forms of expression becomes necessary for
the sake of transmitting to the people of today the Gospel message in its
unchanging meaning”.[46]

42. All of this has great relevance for the preaching of
the Gospel, if we are really concerned to make its beauty more clearly
recognized and accepted by all. Of course, we will never be able to make the
Church’s teachings easily understood or readily appreciated by everyone. Faith
always remains something of a cross; it retains a certain obscurity which does
not detract from the firmness of its assent. Some things are understood and
appreciated only from the standpoint of this assent, which is a sister to love,
beyond the level of clear reasons and arguments. We need to remember that all
religious teaching ultimately has to be reflected in the teacher’s way of life,
which awakens the assent of the heart by its nearness, love and
witness.

43. In her ongoing discernment, the Church can also come to
see that certain customs not directly connected to the heart of the Gospel, even
some which have deep historical roots, are no longer properly understood and
appreciated. Some of these customs may be beautiful, but they no longer serve as
means of communicating the Gospel. We should not be afraid to re-examine them.
At the same time, the Church has rules or precepts which may have been quite
effective in their time, but no longer have the same usefulness for directing
and shaping people’s lives. Saint Thomas Aquinas pointed out that the precepts
which Christ and the apostles gave to the people of God “are very few”.[47]
Citing Saint Augustine, he noted that the precepts subsequently enjoined by the
Church should be insisted upon with moderation “so as not to burden the lives of
the faithful” and make our religion a form of servitude, whereas “God’s mercy
has willed that we should be free”.[48] This warning, issued many centuries ago,
is most timely today. It ought to be one of the criteria to be taken into
account in considering a the reform of the Church and her preaching which would
enable it to reach everyone.

44. Moreover, pastors and the lay faithful who accompany
their brothers and sisters in faith or on a journey of openness to God must
always remember what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches quite clearly:
“Imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even
nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate
attachments, and other psychological or social factors”.[49] Consequently,
without detracting from the evangelical ideal, they need to accompany with mercy
and patience the eventual stages of personal growth as these progressively
occur.[50] I want to remind priests that the confessional must not be a torture
chamber but rather an encounter with the Lord’s mercy which spurs us on to do
our best. A small step, in the midst of great human limitations, can be more
pleasing to God than a life which appears outwardly in order but moves through
the day without confronting great difficulties. Everyone needs to be touched by
the comfort and attraction of God’s saving love, which is mysteriously at work
in each person, above and beyond their faults and failings.

45. We see then that the task of evangelization operates
within the limits of language and of circumstances. It constantly seeks to
communicate more effectively the truth of the Gospel in a specific context,
without renouncing the truth, the goodness and the light which it can bring
whenever perfection is not possible. A missionary heart is aware of these limits
and makes itself “weak with the weak... everything for everyone” (1 Cor 9:22).
It never closes itself off, never retreats into its own security, never opts for
rigidity and defensiveness. It realizes that it has to grow in its own
understanding of the Gospel and in discerning the paths of the Spirit, and so it
always does what good it can, even if in the process, its shoes get soiled by
the mud of the street.

V. A MOTHER WITH AN OPEN
HEART

46. A Church which “goes forth” is a Church whose doors are
open. Going out to others in order to reach the fringes of humanity does not
mean rushing out aimlessly into the world. Often it is better simply to slow
down, to put aside our eagerness in order to see and listen to others, to stop
rushing from one thing to another and to remain with someone who has faltered
along the way. At times we have to be like the father of the prodigal son, who
always keeps his door open so that when the son returns, he can readily pass
through it.

47. The Church is called to be the house of the Father,
with doors always wide open. One concrete sign of such openness is that our
church doors should always be open, so that if someone, moved by the Spirit,
comes there looking for God, he or she will not find a closed door. There are
other doors that should not be closed either. Everyone can share in some way in
the life of the Church; everyone can be part of the community, nor should the
doors of the sacraments be closed for simply any reason. This is especially true
of the sacrament which is itself “the door”: baptism. The Eucharist, although it
is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a
powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.[51] These convictions have
pastoral consequences that we are called to consider with prudence and boldness.
Frequently, we act as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators. But the
Church is not a tollhouse; it is the house of the Father, where there is a place
for everyone, with all their problems.

48. If the whole Church takes up this missionary impulse,
she has to go forth to everyone without exception. But to whom should she go
first? When we read the Gospel we find a clear indication: not so much our
friends and wealthy neighbours, but above all the poor and the sick, those who
are usually despised and overlooked, “those who cannot repay you” (Lk 14:14).
There can be no room for doubt or for explanations which weaken so clear a
message. Today and always, “the poor are the privileged recipients of the
Gospel”,[52] and the fact that it is freely preached to them is a sign of the
kingdom that Jesus came to establish. We have to state, without mincing words,
that “there is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor”. May we never
abandon them.

49. Let us go forth, then, let us go forth to offer
everyone the life of Jesus Christ. Here I repeat for the entire Church what I
have often said to the priests and laity of Buenos Aires: I prefer a Church
which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets,
rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to
its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the centre and
then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures. If something
should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so
many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and
consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith
to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. More than by fear of going
astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within
structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us
harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door peole are
starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: “Give them something to eat”
(Mk 6:37).

CHAPTER
TWO

AMID THE CRISIS OF COMMUNAL
COMMITMENT

50. Before taking up some basic questions related to the
work of evangelization, it may be helpful to mention briefly the context in
which we all have to live and work. Today, we frequently hear of a “diagnostic
overload” which is not always accompanied by improved and actually applicable
methods of treatment. Nor would we be well served by a purely sociological
analysis which would aim to embrace all of reality by employing an allegedly
neutral and clinical method. What I would like to propose is something much more
in the line of an evangelical discernment. It is the approach of a missionary
disciple, an approach “nourished by the light and strength of the Holy
Spirit”.[53]

51. It is not the task of the Pope to offer a detailed and
complete analysis of contemporary reality, but I do exhort all the communities
to an “ever watchful scrutiny of the signs of the times”.[54] This is in fact a
grave responsibility, since certain present realities, unless effectively dealt
with, are capable of setting off processes of dehumanization which would then be
hard to reverse. We need to distinguish clearly what might be a fruit of the
kingdom from what runs counter to God’s plan. This involves not only recognizing
and discerning spirits, but also – and this is decisive – choosing movements of
the spirit of good and rejecting those of the spirit of evil. I take for granted
the different analyses which other documents of the universal magisterium have
offered, as well as those proposed by the regional and national conferences of
bishops. In this Exhortation I claim only to consider briefly, and from a
pastoral perspective, certain factors which can restrain or weaken the impulse
of missionary renewal in the Church, either because they threaten the life and
dignity of God’s people or because they affect those who are directly involved
in the Church’s institutions and in her work of
evangelization.

I. SOME CHALLENGES OF TODAY’S
WORLD

52. In our time humanity is experiencing a turning-point in
its history, as we can see from the advances being made in so many fields. We
can only praise the steps being taken to improve people’s welfare in areas such
as health care, education and communications. At the same time we have to
remember that the majority of our contemporaries are barely living from day to
day, with dire consequences. A number of diseases are spreading. The hearts of
many people are gripped by fear and desperation, even in the so-called rich
countries. The joy of living frequently fades, lack of respect for others and
violence are on the rise, and inequality is increasingly evident. It is a
struggle to live and, often, to live with precious little dignity. This epochal
change has been set in motion by the enormous qualitative, quantitative, rapid
and cumulative advances occuring in the sciences and in technology, and by their
instant application in different areas of nature and of life. We are in an age
of knowledge and information, which has led to new and often anonymous kinds of
power.

No to an economy of
exclusion

53. Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a
clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to
say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy
kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person
dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is
a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while
people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under
the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed
upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded
and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of
escape.

Human beings are themselves considered consumer goods to be
used and then discarded. We have created a “disposable” culture which is now
spreading. It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but
something new. Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of
the society in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside
or its fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it.
The excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the
“leftovers”.

54. In this context, some people continue to defend
trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free
market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and
inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the
facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding
economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.
Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes
others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of
indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being
incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other
people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone
else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we
are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase; and in the
meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle;
they fail to move us.

No to the new idolatry of
money

55. One cause of this situation is found in our
relationship with money, since we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and
our societies. The current financial crisis can make us overlook the fact that
it originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the primacy of the human
person! We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf.
Ex 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of
money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human
purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their
imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is
reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.

56. While the earnings of a minority are growing
exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity
enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which
defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation.
Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the
common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born,
invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own
laws and rules. Debt and the accumulation of interest also make it difficult for
countries to realize the potential of their own economies and keep citizens from
enjoying their real purchasing power. To all this we can add widespread
corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which have taken on worldwide
dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits. In this
system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased
profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the
interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.

No to a financial system which
rules rather than serves

57. Behind this attitude lurks a rejection of ethics and a
rejection of God. Ethics has come to be viewed with a certain scornful derision.
It is seen as counterproductive, too human, because it makes money and power
relative. It is felt to be a threat, since it condemns the manipulation and
debasement of the person. In effect, ethics leads to a God who calls for a
committed response which is outside of the categories of the marketplace. When
these latter are absolutized, God can only be seen as uncontrollable,
unmanageable, even dangerous, since he calls human beings to their full
realization and to freedom from all forms of enslavement. Ethics – a
non-ideological ethics – would make it possible to bring about balance and a
more humane social order. With this in mind, I encourage financial experts and
political leaders to ponder the words of one of the sages of antiquity: “Not to
share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their
livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but
theirs”.[55]

58. A financial reform open to such ethical considerations
would require a vigorous change of approach on the part of political leaders. I
urge them to face this challenge with determination and an eye to the future,
while not ignoring, of course, the specifics of each case. Money must serve, not
rule! The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but he is obliged in the
name of Christ to remind all that the rich must help, respect and promote the
poor. I exhort you to generous solidarity and a return of economics and finance
to an ethical approach which favours human beings.

No to the inequality which
spawns violence

59. Today in many places we hear a call for greater
security. But until exclusion and inequality in society and between peoples is
reversed, it will be impossible to eliminate violence. The poor and the poorer
peoples are accused of violence, yet without equal opportunities the different
forms of aggression and conflict will find a fertile terrain for growth and
eventually explode. When a society – whether local, national or global – is
willing to leave a part of itself on the fringes, no political programmes or
resources spent on law enforcement or surveillance systems can indefinitely
guarantee tranquility. This is not the case simply because inequality provokes a
violent reaction from those excluded from the system, but because the
socioeconomic system is unjust at its root. Just as goodness tends to spread,
the toleration of evil, which is injustice, tends to expand its baneful
influence and quietly to undermine any political and social system, no matter
how solid it may appear. If every action has its consequences, an evil embedded
in the structures of a society has a constant potential for disintegration and
death. It is evil crystallized in unjust social structures, which cannot be the
basis of hope for a better future. We are far from the so-called “end of
history”, since the conditions for a sustainable and peaceful development have
not yet been adequately articulated and realized.

60. Today’s economic mechanisms promote inordinate
consumption, yet it is evident that unbridled consumerism combined with
inequality proves doubly damaging to the social fabric. Inequality eventually
engenders a violence which recourse to arms cannot and never will be able to
resolve. This serves only to offer false hopes to those clamouring for
heightened security, even though nowadays we know that weapons and violence,
rather than providing solutions, create new and more serious conflicts. Some
simply content themselves with blaming the poor and the poorer countries
themselves for their troubles; indulging in unwarranted generalizations, they
claim that the solution is an “education” that would tranquilize them, making
them tame and harmless. All this becomes even more exasperating for the
marginalized in the light of the widespread and deeply rooted corruption found
in many countries – in their governments, businesses and institutions – whatever
the political ideology of their leaders.

Some cultural
challenges

61. We also evangelize when we attempt to confront the
various challenges which can arise.[56] On occasion these may take the form of
veritable attacks on religious freedom or new persecutions directed against
Christians; in some countries these have reached alarming levels of hatred and
violence. In many places, the problem is more that of widespread indifference
and relativism, linked to disillusionment and the crisis of ideologies which has
come about as a reaction to anything which might appear totalitarian. This not
only harms the Church but the fabric of society as a whole. We should recognize
how in a culture where each person wants to be bearer of his or her own
subjective truth, it becomes difficult for citizens to devise a common plan
which transcends individual gain and personal ambitions.

62. In the prevailing culture, priority is given to the
outward, the immediate, the visible, the quick, the superficial and the
provisional. What is real gives way to appearances. In many countries
globalization has meant a hastened deterioration of their own cultural roots and
the invasion of ways of thinking and acting proper to other cultures which are
economically advanced but ethically debilitated. This fact has been brought up
by bishops from various continents in different Synods. The African bishops, for
example, taking up the Encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, pointed out years
ago that there have been frequent attempts to make the African countries “parts
of a machine, cogs on a gigantic wheel. This is often true also in the field of
social communications which, being run by centres mostly in the northern
hemisphere, do not always give due consideration to the priorities and problems
of such countries or respect their cultural make-up”.[57] By the same token, the
bishops of Asia “underlined the external influences being brought to bear on
Asian cultures. New patterns of behaviour are emerging as a result of
over-exposure to the mass media… As a result, the negative aspects of the media
and entertainment industries are threatening traditional values, and in
particular the sacredness of marriage and the stability of the family”.[58]

63. The Catholic faith of many peoples is nowadays being
challenged by the proliferation of new religious movements, some of which tend
to fundamentalism while others seem to propose a spirituality without God. This
is, on the one hand, a human reaction to a materialistic, consumerist and
individualistic society, but it is also a means of exploiting the weaknesses of
people living in poverty and on the fringes of society, people who make ends
meet amid great human suffering and are looking for immediate solutions to their
needs. These religious movements, not without a certain shrewdness, come to
fill, within a predominantly individualistic culture, a vacuum left by
secularist rationalism. We must recognize that if part of our baptized people
lack a sense of belonging to the Church, this is also due to certain structures
and the occasionally unwelcoming atmosphere of some of our parishes and
communities, or to a bureaucratic way of dealing with problems, be they simple
or complex, in the lives of our people. In many places an administrative
approach prevails over a pastoral approach, as does a concentration on
administering the sacraments apart from other forms of
evangelization.

64. The process of secularization tends to reduce the faith
and the Church to the sphere of the private and personal. Furthermore, by
completely rejecting the transcendent, it has produced a growing deterioration
of ethics, a weakening of the sense of personal and collective sin, and a steady
increase in relativism. These have led to a general sense of disorientation,
especially in the periods of adolescence and young adulthood which are so
vulnerable to change. As the bishops of the United States of America have
rightly pointed out, while the Church insists on the existence of objective
moral norms which are valid for everyone, “there are those in our culture who
portray this teaching as unjust, that is, as opposed to basic human rights. Such
claims usually follow from a form of moral relativism that is joined, not
without inconsistency, to a belief in the absolute rights of individuals. In
this view, the Church is perceived as promoting a particular prejudice and as
interfering with individual freedom”.[59] We are living in an information-driven
society which bombards us indiscriminately with data – all treated as being of
equal importance – and which leads to remarkable superficiality in the area of
moral discernment. In response, we need to provide an education which teaches
critical thinking and encourages the development of mature moral values.

65. Despite the tide of secularism which has swept our
societies, in many countries – even those where Christians are a minority – the
Catholic Church is considered a credible institution by public opinion, and
trusted for her solidarity and concern for those in greatest need. Again and
again, the Church has acted as a mediator in finding solutions to problems
affecting peace, social harmony, the land, the defence of life, human and civil
rights, and so forth. And how much good has been done by Catholic schools and
universities around the world! This is a good thing. Yet, we find it difficult
to make people see that when we raise other questions less palatable to public
opinion, we are doing so out of fidelity to precisely the same convictions about
human dignity and the common good.

66. The family is experiencing a profound cultural crisis,
as are all communities and social bonds. In the case of the family, the
weakening of these bonds is particularly serious because the family is the
fundamental cell of society, where we learn to live with others despite our
differences and to belong to one another; it is also the place where parents
pass on the faith to their children. Marriage now tends to be viewed as a form
of mere emotional satisfaction that can be constructed in any way or modified at
will. But the indispensible contribution of marriage to society transcends the
feelings and momentary needs of the couple. As the French bishops have taught,
it is not born “of loving sentiment, ephemeral by definition, but from the depth
of the obligation assumed by the spouses who accept to enter a total communion
of life”.[60]

67. The individualism of our postmodern and globalized era
favours a lifestyle which weakens the development and stability of personal
relationships and distorts family bonds. Pastoral activity needs to bring out
more clearly the fact that our relationship with the Father demands and
encourages a communion which heals, promotes and reinforces interpersonal bonds.
In our world, especially in some countries, different forms of war and conflict
are re-emerging, yet we Christians remain steadfast in our intention to respect
others, to heal wounds, to build bridges, to strengthen relationships and to
“bear one another’s burdens” (Gal 6:2). Today too, various associations for the
defence of rights and the pursuit of noble goals are being founded. This is a
sign of the desire of many people to contribute to social and cultural
progress.

Challenges to inculturating
the faith

68. The Christian substratum of certain peoples – most of
all in the West – is a living reality. Here we find, especially among the most
needy, a moral resource which preserves the values of an authentic
Christian humanism. Seeing reality with the eyes of faith, we cannot fail to
acknowledge what the Holy Spirit is sowing. It would show a lack of trust in his
free and unstinting activity to think that authentic Christian values are absent
where great numbers of people have received baptism and express their faith and
solidarity with others in a variety of ways. This means more than acknowledging
occasional “seeds of the word”, since it has to do with an authentic Christian
faith which has its own expressions and means of showing its relationship to the
Church. The immense importance of a culture marked by faith cannot be
overlooked; before the onslaught of contemporary secularism an evangelized
culture, for all its limits, has many more resources than the mere sum total of
believers. An evangelized popular culture contains values of faith and
solidarity capable of encouraging the development of a more just and believing
society, and possesses a particular wisdom which ought to be gratefully
acknowledged.

69. It is imperative to evangelize cultures in order to
inculturate the Gospel. In countries of Catholic tradition, this means
encouraging, fostering and reinforcing a richness which already exists. In
countries of other religious traditions, or profoundly secularized countries, it
will mean sparking new processes for evangelizing culture, even though these
will demand long-term planning. We must keep in mind, however, that we are
constantly being called to grow. Each culture and social group needs
purification and growth. In the case of the popular cultures of Catholic
peoples, we can see deficiencies which need to be healed by the Gospel:
machismo, alcoholism, domestic violence, low Mass attendance, fatalistic or
superstitious notions which lead to sorcery, and the like. Popular piety itself
can be the starting point for healing and liberation from these
deficiencies.

70. It is also true that at times greater emphasis is
placed on the outward expressions and traditions of some groups, or on alleged
private revelations which would replace all else, than on the impulse of
Christian piety. There is a kind of Christianity made up of devotions reflecting
an individual and sentimental faith life which does not in fact correspond to
authentic “popular piety”. Some people promote these expressions while not being
in the least concerned with the advancement of society or the formation of the
laity, and in certain cases they do so in order to obtain economic benefits or
some power over others. Nor can we overlook the fact that in recent decades
there has been a breakdown in the way Catholics pass down the Christian faith to
the young. It is undeniable that many people feel disillusioned and no longer
identify with the Catholic tradition. Growing numbers of parents do not bring
their children for baptism or teach them how to pray. There is also a certain
exodus towards other faith communities. The causes of this breakdown include: a
lack of opportunity for dialogue in families, the influence of the
communications media, a relativistic subjectivism, unbridled consumerism which
feeds the market, lack of pastoral care among the poor, the failure of our
institutions to be welcoming, and our difficulty in restoring a mystical
adherence to the faith in a pluralistic religious landscape.

Challenges from urban
cultures

71. The new Jerusalem, the holy city (cf. Rev 21:2-4), is
the goal towards which all of humanity is moving. It is curious that God’s
revelation tells us that the fullness of humanity and of history is realized in
a city. We need to look at our cities with a contemplative gaze, a gaze of faith
which sees God dwelling in their homes, in their streets and squares. God’s
presence accompanies the sincere efforts of individuals and groups to find
encouragement and meaning in their lives. He dwells among them, fostering
solidarity, fraternity, and the desire for goodness, truth and justice. This
presence must not be contrived but found, uncovered. God does not hide himself
from those who seek him with a sincere heart, even though they do so
tentatively, in a vague and haphazard manner.

72. In cities, as opposed to the countryside, the religious
dimension of life is expressed by different lifestyles, daily rhythms linked to
places and people. In their daily lives people must often struggle for survival
and this struggle contains within it a profound understanding of life which
often includes a deep religious sense. We must examine this more closely in
order to enter into a dialogue like that of our Lord and the Samaritan woman at
the well where she sought to quench her thirst (cf. Jn
4:1-15).

73. New cultures are constantly being born in these vast
new expanses where Christians are no longer the customary interpreters or
generators of meaning. Instead, they themselves take from these cultures new
languages, symbols, messages and paradigms which propose new approaches to life,
approaches often in contrast with the Gospel of Jesus. A completely new culture
has come to life and continues to grow in the cities. The Synod noted that today
the changes taking place in these great spaces and the culture which they create
are a privileged locus of the new evangelization.[61] This challenges us to
imagine innovative spaces and possibilities for prayer and communion which are
more attractive and meaningful for city dwellers. Through the influence of the
media, rural areas are being affected by the same cultural changes, which are
significantly altering their way of life as well.

74. What is called for is an evangelization capable of
shedding light on these new ways of relating to God, to others and to the world
around us, and inspiring essential values. It must reach the places where new
narratives and paradigms are being formed, bringing the word of Jesus to the
inmost soul of our cities. Cities are multicultural; in the larger cities, a
connective network is found in which groups of people share a common imagination
and dreams about life, and new human interactions arise, new cultures, invisible
cities. Various subcultures exist side by side, and often practise segregation
and violence. The Church is called to be at the service of a difficult dialogue.
On the one hand, there are people who have the means needed to develop their
personal and family lives, but there are also many “non-citizens”, “half
citizens” and “urban remnants”. Cities create a sort of permanent ambivalence
because, while they offer their residents countless possibilities, they also
present many people with any number of obstacles to the full development of
their lives. This contrast causes painful suffering. In many parts of the world,
cities are the scene of mass protests where thousands of people call for
freedom, a voice in public life, justice and a variety of other demands which,
if not properly understood, will not be silenced by force.

75. We cannot ignore the fact that in cities human
trafficking, the narcotics trade, the abuse and exploitation of minors, the
abandonment of the elderly and infirm, and various forms of corruption and
criminal activity take place. At the same time, what could be significant places
of encounter and solidarity often become places of isolation and mutual
distrust. Houses and neighbourhoods are more often built to isolate and protect
than to connect and integrate. The proclamation of the Gospel will be a basis
for restoring the dignity of human life in these contexts, for Jesus desires to
pour out an abundance of life upon our cities (cf. Jn 10:10). The unified and
complete sense of human life that the Gospel proposes is the best remedy for the
ills of our cities, even though we have to realize that a uniform and rigid
program of evangelization is not suited to this complex reality. But to live our
human life to the fullest and to meet every challenge as a leaven of Gospel
witness in every culture and in every city will make us better Christians and
bear fruit in our cities.

II. TEMPTATIONS FACED BY
PASTORAL WORKERS

76. I feel tremendous gratitude to all those who are
committed to working in and for the Church. Here I do not wish to discuss at
length the activities of the different pastoral workers, from bishops down to
those who provide the most humble and hidden services. Rather, I would like to
reflect on the challenges that all of them must face in the context of our
current globalized culture. But in justice, I must say first that the
contribution of the Church in today’s world is enormous. The pain and the shame
we feel at the sins of some members of the Church, and at our own, must never
make us forget how many Christians are giving their lives in love. They help so
many people to be healed or to die in peace in makeshift hospitals. They are
present to those enslaved by different addictions in the poorest places on
earth. They devote themselves to the education of children and young people.
They take care of the elderly who have been forgotten by everyone else. They
look for ways to communicate values in hostile environments. They are dedicated
in many other ways to showing an immense love for humanity inspired by the God
who became man. I am grateful for the beautiful example given to me by so many
Christians who joyfully sacrifice their lives and their time. This witness
comforts and sustains me in my own effort to overcome selfishness and to give
more fully of myself.

77. As children of this age, though, all of us are in some
way affected by the present globalized culture which, while offering us values
and new possibilities, can also limit, condition and ultimately harm us. I am
aware that we need to create spaces where pastoral workers can be helped and
healed, “places where faith itself in the crucified and risen Jesus is renewed,
where the most profound questions and daily concerns are shared, where deeper
discernment about our experiences and life itself is undertaken in the light of
the Gospel, for the purpose of directing individual and social decisions towards
the good and beautiful”.[62] At the same time, I would like to call attention to
certain particular temptations which affect pastoral
workers.

Yes to the challenge of a
missionary spirituality

78. Today we are seeing in many pastoral workers, including
consecrated men and women, an inordinate concern for their personal freedom and
relaxation, which leads them to see their work as a mere appendage to their
life, as if it were not part of their very identity. At the same time, the
spiritual life comes to be identified with a few religious exercises which can
offer a certain comfort but which do not encourage encounter with others,
engagement with the world or a passion for evangelization. As a result, one can
observe in many agents of evangelization, even though they pray, a heightened
individualism, a crisis of identity and a cooling of fervour. These are three
evils which fuel one another.

79. At times our media culture and some intellectual
circles convey a marked scepticism with regard to the Church’s message, along
with a certain cynicism. As a consequence, many pastoral workers, although they
pray, develop a sort of inferiority complex which leads them to relativize or
conceal their Christian identity and convictions. This produces a vicious
circle. They end up being unhappy with who they are and what they do; they do
not identify with their mission of evangelization and this weakens their
commitment. They end up stifling the joy of mission with a kind of obsession
about being like everyone else and possessing what everyone else possesses.
Their work of evangelization thus becomes forced, and they devote little energy
and very limited time to it.

80. Pastoral workers can thus fall into a relativism which,
whatever their particular style of spirituality or way of thinking, proves even
more dangerous than doctrinal relativism. It has to do with the deepest and
inmost decisions that shape their way of life. This practical relativism
consists in acting as if God did not exist, making decisions as if the poor did
not exist, setting goals as if others did not exist, working as if people who
have not received the Gospel did not exist. It is striking that even some who
clearly have solid doctrinal and spiritual convictions frequently fall into a
lifestyle which leads to an attachment to financial security, or to a desire for
power or human glory at all cost, rather than giving their lives to others in
mission. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of missionary
enthusiasm!

No to selfishness and spiritual sloth

81. At a time when we most need a missionary dynamism which
will bring salt and light to the world, many lay people fear that they may be
asked to undertake some apostolic work and they seek to avoid any responsibility
that may take away from their free time. For example, it has become very
difficult today to find trained parish catechists willing to persevere in this
work for some years. Something similar is also happening with priests who are
obsessed with protecting their free time. This is frequently due to the fact
that people feel an overbearing need to guard their personal freedom, as though
the task of evangelization was a dangerous poison rather than a joyful response
to God’s love which summons us to mission and makes us fulfilled and productive.
Some resist giving themselves over completely to mission and thus end up in a
state of paralysis and acedia.

82. The problem is not always an excess of activity, but
rather activity undertaken badly, without adequate motivation, without a
spirituality which would permeate it and make it pleasurable. As a result, work
becomes more tiring than necessary, even leading at times to illness. Far from a
content and happy tiredness, this is a tense, burdensome, dissatisfying and, in
the end, unbearable fatigue. This pastoral acedia can be caused by a number of
things. Some fall into it because they throw themselves into unrealistic
projects and are not satisfied simply to do what they reasonably can. Others,
because they lack the patience to allow processes to mature; they want
everything to fall from heaven. Others, because they are attached to a few
projects or vain dreams of success. Others, because they have lost real contract
with people and so depersonalize their work that they are more concerned with
the road map than with the journey itself. Others fall into acedia because they
are unable to wait; they want to dominate the rhythm of life. Today’s obsession
with immediate results makes it hard for pastoral workers to tolerate anything
that smacks of disagreement, possible failure, criticism, the
cross.

83. And so the biggest threat of all gradually takes shape:
“the gray pragmatism of the daily life of the Church, in which all appears to
proceed normally, while in reality faith is wearing down and degenerating into
small-mindedness”.[63] A tomb psychology thus develops and slowly transforms
Christians into mummies in a museum. Disillusioned with reality, with the Church
and with themselves, they experience a constant temptation to cling to a faint
melancholy, lacking in hope, which seizes the heart like “the most precious of
the devil’s potions”.[64] Called to radiate light and communicate life, in the
end they are caught up in things that generate only darkness and inner
weariness, and slowly consume all zeal for the apostolate. For all this, I
repeat: Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the joy of
evangelization!

No to a sterile
pessimism

84. The joy of the Gospel is such that it cannot be taken
away from us by anyone or anything (cf. Jn 16:22). The evils of our world – and
those of the Church – must not be excuses for diminishing our commitment and our
fervour. Let us look upon them as challenges which can help us to grow. With the
eyes of faith, we can see the light which the Holy Spirit always radiates in the
midst of darkness, never forgetting that “where sin increased, grace has
abounded all the more” (Rom 5:20). Our faith is challenged to discern how wine
can come from water and how wheat can grow in the midst of weeds. Fifty years
after the Second Vatican Council, while distressed by the troubles of our age
and far from naive optimism, our greater realism must not mean any less trust in
the Spirit or less generosity. In this sense, we can once again listen to the
words of Blessed John XXIII on the memorable day of 11 October 1962: “At times
we have to listen, much to our regret, to the voices of people who, though
burning with zeal, lack a sense of discretion and measure. In this modern age
they can see nothing but prevarication and ruin … We feel that we must disagree
with those prophets of doom who are always forecasting disaster, as though the
end of the world were at hand. In our times, divine Providence is leading us to
a new order of human relations which, by human effort and even beyond all
expectations, are directed to the fulfilment of God’s superior and inscrutable
designs, in which everything, even human setbacks, leads to the greater good of
the Church”.[65]

85. One of the more serious temptations which stifles
boldness and zeal is a defeatism which turns us into querulous and disillusioned
pessimists, “sourpusses”. Nobody can go off to battle unless he is fully
convinced of victory beforehand. If we start without confidence, we have already
lost half the battle and we bury our talents. While painfully aware of our own
frailties, we have to march on without giving in, keeping in mind what the Lord
said to Saint Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made
perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). Christian triumph is always a cross, yet a
cross which is at the same time a victorious banner borne with aggressive
tenderness against the assaults of evil. The evil spirit of defeatism is brother
to the temptation to separate, before its time, the wheat from the weeds; it is
the fruit of an anxious and self-centred lack of trust.

86. In some places a spiritual “desertification” has
evidently come about, as the result of attempts by some societies to build
without God or to eliminate their Christian roots. In those places “the
Christian world is becoming sterile, and it is depleting itself like an
overexploited ground, which transforms into a desert”.[66] In other countries,
violent opposition to Christianity forces Christians to hide their faith in
their own beloved homeland. This is another painful kind of desert. But family
and the workplace can also be a parched place where faith nonetheless has to be
preserved and communicated. Yet “it is starting from the experience of this
desert, from this void, that we can again discover the joy of believing, its
vital importance for us, men and women. In the desert we rediscover the value of
what is essential for living; thus in today’s world there are innumerable signs,
often expressed implicitly or negatively, of the thirst for God, for the
ultimate meaning of life. And in the desert people of faith are needed who, by
the example of their own lives, point out the way to the Promised Land and keep
hope alive”.[67] In these situations we are called to be living sources of water
from which others can drink. At times, this becomes a heavy cross, but it was
from the cross, from his pierced side, that our Lord gave himself to us as a
source of living water. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of
hope!

Yes to the new relationships
brought by Christ

87. Today, when the networks and means of human
communication have made unprecedented advances, we sense the challenge of
finding and sharing a “mystique” of living together, of mingling and encounter,
of embracing and supporting one another, of stepping into this flood tide which,
while chaotic, can become a genuine experience of fraternity, a caravan of
solidarity, a sacred pilgrimage. Greater possibilities for communication thus
turn into greater possibilities for encounter and solidarity for everyone. If we
were able to take this route, it would be so good, so soothing, so liberating
and hope-filled! To go out of ourselves and to join others is healthy for us. To
be self-enclosed is to taste the bitter poison of immanence, and humanity will
be worse for every selfish choice we make.

88. The Christian ideal will always be a summons to
overcome suspicion, habitual mistrust, fear of losing our privacy, all the
defensive attitudes which today’s world imposes on us. Many try to escape from
others and take refuge in the comfort of their privacy or in a small circle of
close friends, renouncing the realism of the social aspect of the Gospel. For
just as some people want a purely spiritual Christ, without flesh and without
the cross, they also want their interpersonal relationships provided by
sophisticated equipment, by screens and systems which can be turned on and off
on command. Meanwhile, the Gospel tells us constantly to run the risk of a
face-to-face encounter with others, with their physical presence which
challenges us, with their pain and their pleas, with their joy which infects us
in our close and continuous interaction. True faith in the incarnate Son of God
is inseparable from self-giving, from membership in the community, from service,
from reconciliation with others. The Son of God, by becoming flesh, summoned us
to the revolution of tenderness.

89. Isolation, which is a version of immanentism, can find
expression in a false autonomy which has no place for God. But in the realm of
religion it can also take the form of a spiritual consumerism tailored to one’s
own unhealthy individualism. The return to the sacred and the quest for
spirituality which mark our own time are ambiguous phenomena. Today, our
challenge is not so much atheism as the need to respond adequately to many
people’s thirst for God, lest they try to satisfy it with alienating solutions
or with a disembodied Jesus who demands nothing of us with regard to others.
Unless these people find in the Church a spirituality which can offer healing
and liberation, and fill them with life and peace, while at the same time
summoning them to fraternal communion and missionary fruitfulness, they will end
up by being taken in by solutions which neither make life truly human nor give
glory to God.

90. Genuine forms of popular religiosity are incarnate,
since they are born of the incarnation of Christian faith in popular culture.
For this reason they entail a personal relationship, not with vague spiritual
energies or powers, but with God, with Christ, with Mary, with the saints. These
devotions are fleshy, they have a face. They are capable of fostering
relationships and not just enabling escapism. In other parts of our society, we
see the growing attraction to various forms of a “spirituality of well-being”
divorced from any community life, or to a “theology of prosperity” detached from
responsibility for our brothers and sisters, or to depersonalized experiences
which are nothing more than a form of self-centredness.

91. One important challenge is to show that the solution
will never be found in fleeing from a personal and committed relationship with
God which at the same time commits us to serving others. This happens frequently
nowadays, as believers seek to hide or keep apart from others, or quietly flit
from one place to another or from one task to another, without creating deep and
stable bonds. “Imaginatio locorum et mutatio multos fefellit”.[68] This is a
false remedy which cripples the heart and at times the body as well. We need to
help others to realize that the only way is to learn how to encounter others
with the right attitude, which is to accept and esteem them as companions along
the way, without interior resistance. Better yet, it means learning to find
Jesus in the faces of others, in their voices, in their pleas. And learning to
suffer in the embrace of the crucified Jesus whenever we are unjustly attacked
or meet with ingratitude, never tiring of our decision to live in
fraternity.[69]

92. There indeed we find true healing, since the way to
relate to others which truly heals instead of debilitating us, is a mystical
fraternity, a contemplative fraternity. It is a fraternal love capable of seeing
the sacred grandeur of our neighbour, of finding God in every human being, of
tolerating the nuisances of life in common by clinging to the love of God, of
opening the heart to divine love and seeking the happiness of others just as
their heavenly Father does. Here and now, especially where we are a “little
flock” (Lk 12:32), the Lord’s disciples are called to live as a community which
is the salt of the earth and the light of the world (cf. Mt 5:13-16). We are
called to bear witness to a constantly new way of living together in fidelity to
the Gospel.[70] Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of
community!

No to spiritual
worldliness

93. Spiritual worldliness, which hides behind the
appearance of piety and even love for the Church, consists in seeking not the
Lord’s glory but human glory and personal well-being. It is what the Lord
reprimanded the Pharisees for: “How can you believe, who receive glory from one
another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” (Jn 5:44). It
is a subtle way of seeking one’s “own interests, not those of Jesus Christ”
(Phil 2:21). It takes on many forms, depending on the kinds of persons and
groups into which it seeps. Since it is based on carefully cultivated
appearances, it is not always linked to outward sin; from without, everything
appears as it should be. But if it were to seep into the Church, “it would be
infinitely more disastrous than any other worldliness which is simply
moral”.[71]

94. This worldliness can be fuelled in two deeply
interrelated ways. One is the attraction of gnosticism, a purely subjective
faith whose only interest is a certain experience or a set of ideas and bits of
information which are meant to console and enlighten, but which ultimately keep
one imprisoned in his or her own thoughts and feelings. The other is the
self-absorbed promethean neopelagianism of those who ultimately trust only in
their own powers and feel superior to others because they observe certain rules
or remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style from the past.
A supposed soundness of doctrine or discipline leads instead to a narcissistic
and authoritarian elitism, whereby instead of evangelizing, one analyzes and
classifies others, and instead of opening the door to grace, one exhausts his or
her energies in inspecting and verifying. In neither case is one really
concerned about Jesus Christ or others. These are manifestations of an
anthropocentric immanentism. It is impossible to think that a genuine
evangelizing thrust could emerge from these adulterated forms of Christianity.

95. This insidious worldliness is evident in a number of
attitudes which appear opposed, yet all have the same pretence of “taking over
the space of the Church”. In some people we see an ostentatious preoccupation
for the liturgy, for doctrine and for the Church’s prestige, but without any
concern that the Gospel have a real impact on God’s faithful people and the
concrete needs of the present time. In this way, the life of the Church turns
into a museum piece or something which is the property of a select few. In
others, this spiritual worldliness lurks behind a fascination with social and
political gain, or pride in their ability to manage practical affairs, or an
obsession with programmes of self-help and self-realization. It can also
translate into a concern to be seen, into a social life full of appearances,
meetings, dinners and receptions. It can also lead to a business mentality,
caught up with management, statistics, plans and evaluations whose principal
beneficiary is not God’s people but the Church as an institution. The mark of
Christ, incarnate, crucified and risen, is not present; closed and elite groups
are formed, and no effort is made to go forth and seek out those who are distant
or the immense multitudes who thirst for Christ. Evangelical fervour is replaced
by the empty pleasure of complacency and self-indulgence.

96. This way of thinking also feeds the vainglory of those
who are content to have a modicum of power and would rather be the general of a
defeated army than a mere private in a unit which continues to fight. How often
we dream up vast apostolic projects, meticulously planned, just like defeated
generals! But this is to deny our history as a Church, which is glorious
precisely because it is a history of sacrifice, of hopes and daily struggles, of
lives spent in service and fidelity to work, tiring as it may be, for all work
is “the sweat of our brow”. Instead, we waste time talking about “what needs to
be done” – in Spanish we call this the sin of “habriaqueísmo” – like spiritual
masters and pastoral experts who give instructions from on high. We indulge in
endless fantasies and we lose contact with the real lives and difficulties of
our people.

97. Those who have fallen into this worldliness look on
from above and afar, they reject the prophecy of their brothers and sisters,
they discredit those who raise questions, they constantly point out the mistakes
of others and they are obsessed by appearances. Their hearts are open only to
the limited horizon of their own immanence and interests, and as a consequence
they neither learn from their sins nor are they genuinely open to forgiveness.
This is a tremendous corruption disguised as a good. We need to avoid it by
making the Church constantly go out from herself, keeping her mission focused on
Jesus Christ, and her commitment to the poor. God save us from a worldly Church
with superficial spiritual and pastoral trappings! This stifling worldliness can
only be healed by breathing in the pure air of the Holy Spirit who frees us from
self-centredness cloaked in an outward religiosity bereft of God. Let us not
allow ourselves to be robbed of the Gospel!

No to warring among
ourselves

98. How many wars take place within the people of God and
in our different communities! In our neighbourhoods and in the workplace, how
many wars are caused by envy and jealousy, even among Christians! Spiritual
worldliness leads some Christians to war with other Christians who stand in the
way of their quest for power, prestige, pleasure and economic security. Some are
even no longer content to live as part of the greater Church community but stoke
a spirit of exclusivity, creating an “inner circle”. Instead of belonging to the
whole Church in all its rich variety, they belong to this or that group which
thinks itself different or special.

99. Our world is being torn apart by wars and violence, and
wounded by a widespread individualism which divides human beings, setting them
against one another as they pursue their own well-being. In various countries,
conflicts and old divisions from the past are re-emerging. I especially ask
Christians in communities throughout the world to offer a radiant and attractive
witness of fraternal communion. Let everyone admire how you care for one
another, and how you encourage and accompany one another: “By this everyone will
know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35).
This was Jesus’ heartfelt prayer to the Father: “That they may all be one... in
us... so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21). Beware of the temptation of
jealousy! We are all in the same boat and headed to the same port! Let us ask
for the grace to rejoice in the gifts of each, which belong to
all.

100. Those wounded by historical divisions find it
difficult to accept our invitation to forgiveness and reconciliation, since they
think that we are ignoring their pain or are asking them to give up their memory
and ideals. But if they see the witness of authentically fraternal and
reconciled communities, they will find that witness luminous and attractive. It
always pains me greatly to discover how some Christian communities, and even
consecrated persons, can tolerate different forms of enmity, division, calumny,
defamation, vendetta, jealousy and the desire to impose certain ideas at all
costs, even to persecutions which appear as veritable witch hunts. Whom are we
going to evangelize if this is the way we act?

101. Let us ask the Lord to help us understand the law of
love. How good it is to have this law! How much good it does us to love one
another, in spite of everything. Yes, in spite of everything! Saint Paul’s
exhortation is directed to each of us: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome
evil with good” (Rom 12:21). And again: “Let us not grow weary in doing what is
right” (Gal 6:9). We all have our likes and dislikes, and perhaps at this very
moment we are angry with someone. At least let us say to the Lord: “Lord, I am
angry with this person, with that person. I pray to you for him and for her”. To
pray for a person with whom I am irritated is a beautiful step forward in love,
and an act of evangelization. Let us do it today! Let us not allow ourselves to
be robbed of the ideal of fraternal love!

Other ecclesial
challenges

102. Lay people are, put simply, the vast majority of the
People of God. The minority – ordained ministers – are at their service. There
has been a growing awareness of the identity and mission of the laity in the
Church. We can count on many lay persons, although still not nearly enough, who
have a deeply-rooted sense of community and great fidelity to the tasks of
charity, catechesis and the celebration of the faith. At the same time, a clear
awareness of this responsibility of the laity, grounded in their baptism and
confirmation, does not appear in the same way in all places. In some cases, it
is because lay persons have not been given the formation needed to take on
important responsibilities. In others, it is because in their particular
Churches room has not been made for them to speak and to act, due to an
excessive clericalism which keeps them away from decision-making. Even if many
are now involved in the lay ministries, this involvement is not reflected in a
greater penetration of Christian values in the social, political and economic
sectors. It often remains tied to tasks within the Church, without a real
commitment to applying the Gospel to the transformation of society. The
formation of the laity and the evangelization of professional and intellectual
life represent a significant pastoral challenge.

103. The Church acknowledges the indispensable contribution
which women make to society through the sensitivity, intuition and other
distinctive skill sets which they, more than men, tend to possess. I think, for
example, of the special concern which women show to others, which finds a
particular, even if not exclusive, expression in motherhood. I readily
acknowledge that many women share pastoral responsibilities with priests,
helping to guide people, families and groups and offering new contributions to
theological reflection. But we need to create still broader opportunities for a
more incisive female presence in the Church. Because “the feminine genius is
needed in all expressions in the life of society, the presence of women must
also be guaranteed in the workplace”[72] and in the various other settings where
important decisions are made, both in the Church and in social
structures.

104. Demands that the legitimate rights of women be
respected, based on the firm conviction that men and women are equal in dignity,
present the Church with profound and challenging questions which cannot be
lightly evaded. The reservation of the priesthood to males, as a sign of Christ
the Spouse who gives himself in the Eucharist, is not a question open to
discussion, but it can prove especially divisive if sacramental power is too
closely identified with power in general. It must be remembered that when we
speak of sacramental power “we are in the realm of function, not that of dignity
or holiness”.[73] The ministerial priesthood is one means employed by Jesus for
the service of his people, yet our great dignity derives from baptism, which is
accessible to all. The configuration of the priest to Christ the head – namely,
as the principal source of grace – does not imply an exaltation which would set
him above others. In the Church, functions “do not favour the superiority of
some vis-à-vis the others”.[74] Indeed, a woman, Mary, is more important than
the bishops. Even when the function of ministerial priesthood is considered
“hierarchical”, it must be remembered that “it is totally ordered to the
holiness of Christ’s members”.[75] Its key and axis is not power understood as
domination, but the power to administer the sacrament of the Eucharist; this is
the origin of its authority, which is always a service to God’s people. This
presents a great challenge for pastors and theologians, who are in a position to
recognize more fully what this entails with regard to the possible role of women
in decision-making in different areas of the Church’s life.

105. Youth ministry, as traditionally organized, has also
suffered the impact of social changes. Young people often fail to find responses
to their concerns, needs, problems and hurts in the usual structures. As adults,
we find it hard to listen patiently to them, to appreciate their concerns and
demands, and to speak to them in a language they can understand. For the same
reason, our efforts in the field of education do not produce the results
expected. The rise and growth of associations and movements mostly made up of
young people can be seen as the work of the Holy Spirit, who blazes new trails
to meet their expectations and their search for a deep spirituality and a more
real sense of belonging. There remains a need, however, to ensure that these
associations actively participate in the Church’s overall pastoral efforts.[76]

106. Even if it is not always easy to approach young
people, progress has been made in two areas: the awareness that the entire
community is called to evangelize and educate the young, and the urgent need for
the young to exercise greater leadership. We should recognize that despite the
present crisis of commitment and communal relationships, many young people are
making common cause before the problems of our world and are taking up various
forms of activism and volunteer work. Some take part in the life of the Church
as members of service groups and various missionary initiatives in their own
dioceses and in other places. How beautiful it is to see that young people are
“street preachers” (callejeros de la fe), joyfully bringing Jesus to every
street, every town square and every corner of the earth!

107. Many places are experiencing a dearth of vocations to
the priesthood and consecrated life. This is often due to a lack of contagious
apostolic fervour in communities which results in a cooling of enthusiasm and
attractiveness. Wherever there is life, fervour and a desire to bring Christ to
others, genuine vocations will arise. Even in parishes where priests are not
particularly committed or joyful, the fraternal life and fervour of the
community can awaken in the young a desire to consecrate themselves completely
to God and to the preaching of the Gospel. This is particularly true if such a
living community prays insistently for vocations and courageously proposes to
its young people the path of special consecration. On the other hand, despite
the scarcity of vocations, today we are increasingly aware of the need for a
better process of selecting candidates to the priesthood. Seminaries cannot
accept candidates on the basis of any motivation whatsoever, especially if those
motivations have to do with affective insecurity or the pursuit of power, human
glory or economic well-being.

108. As I mentioned above, I have not sought to offer a
complete diagnosis, but I invite communities to complete and enrich these
perspectives on the basis of their awareness of the challenges facing them and
their neighbours. It is my hope that, in doing so, they will realize that
whenever we attempt to read the signs of the times it is helpful to listen to
young people and the elderly. Both represent a source of hope for every people.
The elderly bring with them memory and the wisdom of experience, which warns us
not to foolishly repeat our past mistakes. Young people call us to renewed and
expansive hope, for they represent new directions for humanity and open us up to
the future, lest we cling to a nostalgia for structures and customs which are no
longer life-giving in today’s world.

109. Challenges exist to be overcome! Let us be realists,
but without losing our joy, our boldness and our hope-filled commitment. Let us
not allow ourselves to be robbed of missionary vigour!

CHAPTER
THREE

THE PROCLAMATION OF THE
GOSPEL

110. After having considered some of the challenges of the
present, I would now like to speak of the task which bears upon us in every age
and place, for “there can be no true evangelization without the explicit
proclamation of Jesus as Lord”, and without “the primacy of the proclamation of
Jesus Christ in all evangelizing work”.[77] Acknowledging the concerns of the
Asian bishops, John Paul II told them that if the Church “is to fulfil its
providential destiny, evangelization as the joyful, patient and progressive
preaching of the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ must be your
absolute priority.”[78] These words hold true for all of us.

I. THE ENTIRE PEOPLE OF GOD
PROCLAIMS THE GOSPEL

111. Evangelization is the task of the Church. The Church,
as the agent of evangelization, is more than an organic and hierarchical
institution; she is first and foremost a people advancing on its pilgrim way
towards God. She is certainly a mystery rooted in the Trinity, yet she exists
concretely in history as a people of pilgrims and evangelizers, transcending any
institutional expression, however necessary. I would like to dwell briefly on
this way of understanding the Church, whose ultimate foundation is found in the
free and gracious initiative of God.

A people for
everyone

112. The salvation which God offers us is the work of his
mercy. No human efforts, however good they may be, can enable us to merit so
great a gift. God, by his sheer grace, draws us to himself and makes us one with
him.[79] He sends his Spirit into our hearts to make us his children,
transforming us and enabling us to respond to his love by our lives. The Church
is sent by Jesus Christ as the sacrament of the salvation offered by God.[80]
Through her evangelizing activity, she cooperates as an instrument of that
divine grace which works unceasingly and inscrutably. Benedict XVI put it nicely
at the beginning of the Synod’s reflections: “It is important always to know
that the first word, the true initiative, the true activity comes from God and
only by inserting ourselves into the divine initiative, only begging for this
divine initiative, shall we too be able to become – with him and in him –
evangelizers”.[81] This principle of the primacy of grace must be a beacon which
constantly illuminates our reflections on evangelization.

113. The salvation which God has wrought, and the Church
joyfully proclaims, is for everyone.[82] God has found a way to unite himself to
every human being in every age. He has chosen to call them together as a people
and not as isolated individuals.[83] No one is saved by himself or herself,
individually, or by his or her own efforts. God attracts us by taking into
account the complex interweaving of personal relationships entailed in the life
of a human community. This people which God has chosen and called is the Church.
Jesus did not tell the apostles to form an exclusive and elite group. He said:
“Go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). Saint Paul tells us in the
people of God, in the Church, “there is neither Jew or Greek... for you are all
one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). To those who feel far from God and the Church,
to all those who are fearful or indifferent, I would like to say this: the Lord,
with great respect and love, is also calling you to be a part of his
people!

114. Being Church means being God’s people, in accordance
with the great plan of his fatherly love. This means that we are to be God’s
leaven in the midst of humanity. It means proclaiming and bringing God’s
salvation into our world, which often goes astray and needs to be encouraged,
given hope and strengthened on the way. The Church must be a place of mercy
freely given, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged
to live the good life of the Gospel.

A people of many
faces

115. The People of God is incarnate in the peoples of the
earth, each of which has its own culture. The concept of culture is valuable for
grasping the various expressions of the Christian life present in God’s people.
It has to do with the lifestyle of a given society, the specific way in which
its members relate to one another, to other creatures and to God. Understood in
this way, culture embraces the totality of a people’s life.[84] Each people in
the course of its history develops its culture with legitimate autonomy.[85]
This is due to the fact that the human person, “by nature stands completely in
need of life in society”[86] and always exists in reference to society, finding
there a concrete way of relating to reality. The human person is always situated
in a culture: “nature and culture are intimately linked”.[87] Grace supposes
culture, and God’s gift becomes flesh in the culture of those who receive it.

116. In these first two Christian millennia, countless
peoples have received the grace of faith, brought it to flower in their daily
lives and handed it on in the language of their own culture. Whenever a
community receives the message of salvation, the Holy Spirit enriches its
culture with the transforming power of the Gospel. The history of the Church
shows that Christianity does not have simply one cultural expression, but
rather, “remaining completely true to itself, with unswerving fidelity to the
proclamation of the Gospel and the tradition of the Church, it will also reflect
the different faces of the cultures and peoples in which it is received and
takes root”.[88] In the diversity of peoples who experience the gift of God,
each in accordance with its own culture, the Church expresses her genuine
catholicity and shows forth the “beauty of her varied face”.[89] In the
Christian customs of an evangelized people, the Holy Spirit adorns the Church,
showing her new aspects of revelation and giving her a new face. Through
inculturation, the Church “introduces peoples, together with their cultures,
into her own community”,[90] for “every culture offers positive values and forms
which can enrich the way the Gospel is preached, understood and lived”.[91] In
this way, the Church takes up the values of different cultures and becomes
sponsa ornata monilibus suis, “the bride bedecked with her jewels” (cf. Is
61:10)”.[92]

117. When properly understood, cultural diversity is not a
threat to Church unity. The Holy Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son,
transforms our hearts and enables us to enter into the perfect communion of the
blessed Trinity, where all things find their unity. He builds up the communion
and harmony of the people of God. The same Spirit is that harmony, just as he is
the bond of love between the Father and the Son.[93] It is he who brings forth a
rich variety of gifts, while at the same time creating a unity which is never
uniformity but a multifaceted and inviting harmony. Evangelization joyfully
acknowledges these varied treasures which the Holy Spirit pours out upon the
Church. We would not do justice to the logic of the incarnation if we thought of
Christianity as monocultural and monotonous. While it is true that some cultures
have been closely associated with the preaching of the Gospel and the
development of Christian thought, the revealed message is not identified with
any of them; its content is transcultural. Hence in the evangelization of new
cultures, or cultures which have not received the Christian message, it is not
essential to impose a specific cultural form, no matter how beautiful or ancient
it may be, together with the Gospel. The message that we proclaim always has a
certain cultural dress, but we in the Church can sometimes fall into a needless
hallowing of our own culture, and thus show more fanaticism than true
evangelizing zeal.

118. The Bishops of Oceania asked that the Church “develop
an understanding and a presentation of the truth of Christ working from the
traditions and cultures of the region” and invited “all missionaries to work in
harmony with indigenous Christians so as to ensure that the faith and the life
of the Church be expressed in legitimate forms appropriate for each
culture”.[94] We cannot demand that peoples of every continent, in expressing
their Christian faith, imitate modes of expression which European nations
developed at a particular moment of their history, because the faith cannot be
constricted to the limits of understanding and expression of any one
culture.[95] It is an indisputable fact that no single culture can exhaust the
mystery of our redemption in Christ.

We are all missionary
disciples

119. In all the baptized, from first to last, the
sanctifying power of the Spirit is at work, impelling us to evangelization. The
people of God is holy thanks to this anointing, which makes it infallible in
credendo. This means that it does not err in faith, even though it may not find
words to explain that faith. The Spirit guides it in truth and leads it to
salvation.[96] As part of his mysterious love for humanity, God furnishes the
totality of the faithful with an instinct of faith – sensus fidei – which helps
them to discern what is truly of God. The presence of the Spirit gives
Christians a certain connaturality with divine realities, and a wisdom which
enables them to grasp those realities intuitively, even when they lack the
wherewithal to give them precise expression.

120. In virtue of their baptism, all the members of the
People of God have become missionary disciples (cf. Mt 28:19). All the baptized,
whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the
faith, are agents of evangelization, and it would be insufficient to envisage a
plan of evangelization to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the
faithful would simply be passive recipients. The new evangelization calls for
personal involvement on the part of each of the baptized. Every Christian is
challenged, here and now, to be actively engaged in evangelization; indeed,
anyone who has truly experienced God’s saving love does not need much time or
lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love. Every Christian is a
missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in
Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are “disciples” and “missionaries”, but
rather that we are always “missionary disciples”. If we are not convinced, let
us look at those first disciples, who, immediately after encountering the gaze
of Jesus, went forth to proclaim him joyfully: “We have found the Messiah!” (Jn
1:41). The Samaritan woman became a missionary immediately after speaking with
Jesus and many Samaritans come to believe in him “because of the woman’s
testimony” (Jn 4:39). So too, Saint Paul, after his encounter with Jesus Christ,
“immediately proclaimed Jesus” (Acts 9:20; cf. 22:6-21). So what are we waiting
for?

121. Of course, all of us are called to mature in our work
as evangelizers. We want to have better training, a deepening love and a clearer
witness to the Gospel. In this sense, we ought to let others be constantly
evangelizing us. But this does not mean that we should postpone the evangelizing
mission; rather, each of us should find ways to communicate Jesus wherever we
are. All of us are called to offer others an explicit witness to the saving love
of the Lord, who despite our imperfections offers us his closeness, his word and
his strength, and gives meaning to our lives. In your heart you know that it is
not the same to live without him; what you have come to realize, what has helped
you to live and given you hope, is what you also need to communicate to others.
Our falling short of perfection should be no excuse; on the contrary, mission is
a constant stimulus not to remain mired in mediocrity but to continue growing.
The witness of faith that each Christian is called to offer leads us to say with
Saint Paul: “Not that I have already obtained this, or am already perfect; but I
press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Phil
3:12-13).

The evangelizing power of
popular piety

122. In the same way, we can see that the different peoples
among whom the Gospel has been inculturated are active collective subjects or
agents of evangelization. This is because each people is the creator of their
own culture and the protagonist of their own history. Culture is a dynamic
reality which a people constantly recreates; each generation passes on a whole
series of ways of approaching different existential situations to the next
generation, which must in turn reformulate it as it confronts its own
challenges. Being human means “being at the same time son and father of the
culture to which one belongs”.[97] Once the Gospel has been inculturated in a
people, in their process of transmitting their culture they also transmit the
faith in ever new forms; hence the importance of understanding evangelization as
inculturation. Each portion of the people of God, by translating the gift of God
into its own life and in accordance with its own genius, bears witness to the
faith it has received and enriches it with new and eloquent expressions. One can
say that “a people continuously evangelizes itself”.[98] Herein lies the
importance of popular piety, a true expression of the spontaneous missionary
activity of the people of God. This is an ongoing and developing process, of
which the Holy Spirit is the principal agent.[99]

123. Popular piety enables us to see how the faith, once
received, becomes embodied in a culture and is constantly passed on. Once looked
down upon, popular piety came to be appreciated once more in the decades
following the Council. In the Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, Pope Paul VI gave
a decisive impulse in this area. There he stated that popular piety “manifests a
thirst for God which only the poor and the simple can know”[100] and that “it
makes people capable of generosity and sacrifice even to the point of
heroism,when it is a question of bearing witness to belief”.[101] Closer to our
own time, Benedict XVI, speaking about Latin America, pointed out that popular
piety is “a precious treasure of the Catholic Church”, in which “we see the soul
of the Latin American peoples”.[102]

124. The Aparecida Document describes the riches which the
Holy Spirit pours forth in popular piety by his gratuitous initiative. On that
beloved continent, where many Christians express their faith through popular
piety, the bishops also refer to it as “popular spirituality” or “the people’s
mysticism”.[103] It is truly “a spirituality incarnated in the culture of the
lowly”.[104] Nor is it devoid of content; rather it discovers and expresses that
content more by way of symbols than by discursive reasoning, and in the act of
faith greater accent is placed on credere in Deum than on credere Deum.[105] It
is “a legitimate way of living the faith, a way of feeling part of the Church
and a manner of being missionaries”;[106] it brings with itself the grace of
being a missionary, of coming out of oneself and setting out on pilgrimage:
“Journeying together to shrines and taking part in other manifestations of
popular piety, also by taking one’s children or inviting others, is in itself an
evangelizing gesture”.[107] Let us not stifle or presume to control this
missionary power!

125. To understand this reality we need to approach it with
the gaze of the Good Shepherd, who seeks not to judge but to love. Only from the
affective connaturality born of love can we appreciate the theological life
present in the piety of Christian peoples, especially among their poor. I think
of the steadfast faith of those mothers tending their sick children who, though
perhaps barely familiar with the articles of the creed, cling to a rosary; or of
all the hope poured into a candle lighted in a humble home with a prayer for
help from Mary, or in the gaze of tender love directed to Christ crucified. No
one who loves God’s holy people will view these actions as the expression of a
purely human search for the divine. They are the manifestation of a theological
life nourished by the working of the Holy Spirit who has been poured into our
hearts (cf. Rom 5:5).

126. Underlying popular piety, as a fruit of the
inculturated Gospel, is an active evangelizing power which we must not
underestimate: to do so would be to fail to recognize the work of the Holy
Spirit. Instead, we are called to promote and strengthen it, in order to deepen
the never-ending process of inculturation. Expressions of popular piety have
much to teach us; for those who are capable of reading them, they are a locus
theologicus which demands our attention, especially at a time when we are
looking to the new evangelization.

Person to
person

127. Today, as the Church seeks to experience a profound
missionary renewal, there is a kind of preaching which falls to each of us as a
daily responsibility. It has to do with bringing the Gospel to the people we
meet, whether they be our neighbours or complete strangers. This is the informal
preaching which takes place in the middle of a conversation, something along the
lines of what a missionary does when visiting a home. Being a disciple means
being constantly ready to bring the love of Jesus to others, and this can happen
unexpectedly and in any place: on the street, in a city square, during work, on
a journey.

128. In this preaching, which is always respectful and
gentle, the first step is personal dialogue, when the other person speaks and
shares his or her joys, hopes and concerns for loved ones, or so many other
heartfelt needs. Only afterwards is it possible to bring up God’s word, perhaps
by reading a Bible verse or relating a story, but always keeping in mind the
fundamental message: the personal love of God who became man, who gave himself
up for us, who is living and who offers us his salvation and his friendship.
This message has to be shared humbly as a testimony on the part of one who is
always willing to learn, in the awareness that the message is so rich and so
deep that it always exceeds our grasp. At times the message can be presented
directly, at times by way of a personal witness or gesture, or in a way which
the Holy Spirit may suggest in that particular situation. If it seems prudent
and if the circumstances are right, this fraternal and missionary encounter
could end with a brief prayer related to the concerns which the person may have
expressed. In this way they will have an experience of being listened to and
understood; they will know that their particular situation has been placed
before God, and that God’s word really speaks to their lives.

129. We should not think, however, that the Gospel message
must always be communicated by fixed formulations learned by heart or by
specific words which express an absolutely invariable content. This
communication takes place in so many different ways that it would be impossible
to describe or catalogue them all, and God’s people, with all their many
gestures and signs, are its collective subject. If the Gospel is embedded in a
culture, the message is no longer transmitted solely from person to person. In
countries where Christianity is a minority, then, along with encouraging each of
the baptized to proclaim the Gospel, particular Churches should actively promote
at least preliminary forms of inculturation. The ultimate aim should be that the
Gospel, as preached in categories proper to each culture, will create a new
synthesis with that particular culture. This is always a slow process and at we
can be overly fearful. But if we allow doubts and fears to dampen our courage,
instead of being creative we will remain comfortable and make no progress
whatsoever. In this case we will not take an active part in historical
processes, but become mere onlookers as the Church gradually stagnates.

Charisms at the service of a
communion which evangelizes

130. The Holy Spirit also enriches the entire evangelizing
Church with different charisms. These gifts are meant to renew and build up the
Church.[108] They are not an inheritance, safely secured and entrusted to a
small group for safekeeping; rather they are gifts of the Spirit integrated into
the body of the Church, drawn to the centre which is Christ and then channelled
into an evangelizing impulse. A sure sign of the authenticity of a charism is
its ecclesial character, its ability to be integrated harmoniously into the life
of God’s holy and faithful people for the good of all. Something truly new
brought about by the Spirit need not overshadow other gifts and spiritualities
in making itself felt. To the extent that a charism is better directed to the
heart of the Gospel, its exercise will be more ecclesial. It is in communion,
even when this proves painful, that a charism is seen to be authentic and
mysteriously fruitful. On the basis of her response to this challenge, the
Church can be a model of peace in our world.

131. Differences between persons and communities can
sometimes prove uncomfortable, but the Holy Spirit, who is the source of that
diversity, can bring forth something good from all things and turn it into an
attractive means of evangelization. Diversity must always be reconciled by the
help of the Holy Spirit; he alone can raise up diversity, plurality and
multiplicity while at the same time bringing about unity. When we, for our part,
aspire to diversity, we become self-enclosed, exclusive and divisive; similarly,
whenever we attempt to create unity on the basis of our human calculations, we
end up imposing a monolithic uniformity. This is not helpful for the Church’s
mission.

Culture, thought
and education

132. Proclaiming the Gospel message to different cultures
also involves proclaiming it to professional, scientific and academic circles.
This means an encounter between faith, reason and the sciences with a view to
developing new approaches and arguments on the issue of credibility, a creative
apologetics[109] which would encourage greater openness to the Gospel on the
part of all. When certain categories of reason and the sciences are taken up
into the proclamation of the message, these categories then become tools of
evangelization; water is changed into wine. Whatever is taken up is not just
redeemed, but becomes an instrument of the Spirit for enlightening and renewing
the world.

133. It is not enough that evangelizers be concerned to
reach each person, or that the Gospel be proclaimed to the cultures as a whole.
A theology – and not simply a pastoral theology – which is in dialogue with
other sciences and human experiences is most important for our discernment on
how best to bring the Gospel message to different cultural contexts and
groups.[110] The Church, in her commitment to evangelization, appreciates and
encourages the charism of theologians and their scholarly efforts to advance
dialogue with the world of cultures and sciences. I call on theologians to carry
out this service as part of the Church’s saving mission. In doing so, however,
they must always remember that the Church and theology exist to evangelize, and
not be content with a desk-bound theology.

134. Universities are outstanding environments for
articulating and developing this evangelizing commitment in an interdisciplinary
and integrated way. Catholic schools, which always strive to join their work of
education with the explicit proclamation of the Gospel, are a most valuable
resource for the evangelization of culture, even in those countries and cities
where hostile situations challenge us to greater creativity in our search for
suitable methods.[111]

II. THE HOMILY

135. Let us now look at preaching within the liturgy, which
calls for serious consideration by pastors. I will dwell in particular, and even
somewhat meticulously, on the homily and its preparation, since so many concerns
have been expressed about this important ministry and we cannot simply ignore
them. The homily is the touchstone for judging a pastor’s closeness and ability
to communicate to his people. We know that the faithful attach great importance
to it, and that both they and their ordained ministers suffer because of
homilies: the laity from having to listen to them and the clergy from having to
preach them! It is sad that this is the case. The homily can actually be an
intense and happy experience of the Spirit, a consoling encounter with God’s
word, a constant source of renewal and growth.

136. Let us renew our confidence in preaching, based on the
conviction that it is God who seeks to reach out to others through the preacher,
and that he displays his power through human words. Saint Paul speaks forcefully
about the need to preach, since the Lord desires to reach other people by means
of our word (cf. Rom 10:14-17). By his words our Lord won over the hearts of the
people; they came to hear him from all parts (cf. Mk 1:45); they were amazed at
his teachings (cf. Mk 6:2), and they sensed that he spoke to them as one with
authority (cf. Mk 1:27). By their words the apostles, whom Christ established
“to be with him and to be sent out to preach” (Mk 3:14), brought all nations to
the bosom of the Church (cf. Mt 16:15.20).

The liturgical
context

137. It is worthy remembering that “the liturgical
proclamation of the word of God, especially in the eucharistic assembly, is not
so much a time for meditation and catechesis as a dialogue between God and his
people, a dialogue in which the great deeds of salvation are proclaimed and the
demands of the covenant are continually restated”.[112] The homily has special
importance due to its eucharistic context: it surpasses all forms of catechesis
as the supreme moment in the dialogue between God and his people which lead up
to sacramental communion. The homily takes up once more the dialogue which the
Lord has already established with his people. The preacher must know the heart
of his community, in order to realize where its desire for God is alive and
ardent, as well as where that dialogue, once loving, has been thwarted and is
now barren.

138. The homily cannot be a form of entertainment like
those presented by the media, yet it does need to give life and meaning to the
celebration. It is a distinctive genre, since it is preaching which is situated
within the framework of a liturgical celebration; hence it should be brief and
avoid taking on the semblance of a speech or a lecture. A preacher may be able
to hold the attention of his listeners for a whole hour, but in this case his
words become more important than the celebration of faith. If the homily goes on
too long, it will affect two characteristic elements of the liturgical
celebration: its balance and its rhythm. When preaching takes place within the
context of the liturgy, it is part of the offering made to the Father and a
mediation of the grace which Christ pours out during the celebration. This
context demands that preaching should guide the assembly, and the preacher, to a
life-changing communion with Christ in the Eucharist. This means that the words
of the preacher must be measured, so that the Lord, more than his minister, will
be the centre of attention.

A mother’s
conversation

139. We said that the people of God, by the constant inner
working of the Holy Spirit, is constantly evangelizing itself. What are the
implications of this principle for preachers? It reminds us that the Church is a
mother, and that she preaches in the same way that a mother speaks to her child,
knowing that the child trusts that what she is teaching is for his or her
benefit, for children know that they are loved. Moreover, a good mother can
recognize everything that God is bringing about in her children, she listens to
their concerns and learns from them. The spirit of love which reigns in a family
guides both mother and child in their conversations; therein they teach and
learn, experience correction and grow in appreciation of what is good. Something
similar happens in a homily. The same Spirit who inspired the Gospels and who
acts in the Church also inspires the preacher to hear the faith of the God’s
people and to find the right way to preach at each Eucharist. Christian
preaching thus finds in the heart of people and their culture a source of living
water, which helps the preacher to know what must be said and how to say it.
Just as all of us like to be spoken to in our mother tongue, so too in the faith
we like to be spoken to in our “mother culture,” our native language (cf. 2 Macc
7:21, 27), and our heart is better disposed to listen. This language is a kind
of music which inspires encouragement, strength and enthusiasm.

140. This setting, both maternal and ecclesial, in which
the dialogue between the Lord and his people takes place, should be encouraged
by the closeness of the preacher, the warmth of his tone of voice, the
unpretentiousness of his manner of speaking, the joy of his gestures. Even if
the homily at times may be somewhat tedious, if this maternal and ecclesial
spirit is present, it will always bear fruit, just as the tedious counsels of a
mother bear fruit, in due time, in the hearts of her children.

141. One cannot but admire the resources that the Lord used
to dialogue with his people, to reveal his mystery to all and to attract
ordinary people by his lofty teachings and demands. I believe that the secret
lies in the way Jesus looked at people, seeing beyond their weaknesses and
failings: “Fear not little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give
you the kingdom” (Lk 12:32); Jesus preaches with that spirit. Full of joy in the
Spirit, he blesses the Father who draws the little ones to him: “I thank you
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the
wise and understanding and revealed them to babes” (Lk 10:21). The Lord truly
enjoys talking with his people; the preacher should strive to communicate that
same enjoyment to his listeners.

Words which set hearts on
fire

142. Dialogue is much more than the communication of a
truth. It arises from the enjoyment of speaking and it enriches those who
express their love for one another through the medium of words. This is an
enrichment which does not consist in objects but in persons who share themselves
in dialogue. A preaching which would be purely moralistic or doctrinaire, or one
which turns into a lecture on biblical exegesis, detracts from this
heart-to-heart communication which takes place in the homily and possesses a
quasi-sacramental character: “Faith come from what is heard, and what is heard
comes by the preaching of Christ” (Rom 10:17). In the homily, truth goes hand in
hand with beauty and goodness. Far from dealing with abstract truths or cold
syllogisms, it communicates the beauty of the images used by the Lord to
encourage the practise of good. The memory of the faithful, like that of Mary,
should overflow with the wondrous things done by God. Their hearts, growing in
hope from the joyful and practical exercise of the love which they have
received, will sense that each word of Scripture is a gift before it is a
demand.

143. The challenge of an inculturated preaching consists in
proclaiming a synthesis, not ideas or detached values. Where your synthesis is,
there lies your heart. The difference between enlightening people with a
synthesis and doing so with detached ideas is like the difference between
boredom and heartfelt fervour. The preacher has the wonderful but difficult task
of joining loving hearts, the hearts of the Lord and his people. The dialogue
between God and his people further strengthens the covenant between them and
consolidates the bond of charity. In the course of the homily, the hearts of
believers keep silence and allow God to speak. The Lord and his people speak to
one another in a thousand ways directly, without intermediaries. But in the
homily they want someone to serve as an instrument and to express their feelings
in such a way that afterwards, each one may chose how he or she will continue
the conversation. The word is essentially a mediator and requires not just the
two who dialogue but also an intermediary who presents it for what it is, out of
the conviction that “what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord,
with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor 4:5).

144. To speak from the heart means that our hearts must not
just be on fire, but also enlightened by the fullness of revelation and by the
path travelled by God’s word in the heart of the Church and our faithful people
throughout history. This Christian identity, as the baptismal embrace which the
Father gave us when we were little ones, makes us desire, as prodigal children –
and favourite children in Mary – yet another embrace, that of the merciful
Father who awaits us in glory. Helping our people to feel that they live in the
midst of these two embraces is the difficult but beautiful task of one who
preaches the Gospel.

III. PREPARING TO
PREACH

145. Preparation for preaching is so important a task that
a prolonged time of study, prayer, reflection and pastoral creativity should be
devoted to it. With great affection I wish to stop for a moment and offer a
method of preparing homilies. Some may find these suggestions self-evident, but
I consider it helpful to offer them as a way of emphasizing the need to devote
quality time to this precious ministry. Some pastors argue that such preparation
is not possible given the vast number of tasks which they must perform;
nonetheless, I presume to ask that each week a sufficient portion of personal
and community time be dedicated to this task, even if less time has to be given
to other important activities. Trust in the Holy Spirit who is at work during
the homily is not merely passive but active and creative. It demands that we
offer ourselves and all our abilities as instruments (cf. Rom 12:1) which God
can use. A preacher who does not prepare is not “spiritual”; he is dishonest and
irresponsible with the gifts he has received.

Reverence for
truth

146. The first step, after calling upon the Holy Spirit in
prayer, is to give our entire attention to the biblical text, which needs to be
the basis of our preaching. Whenever we stop and attempt to understand the
message of a particular text, we are practising “reverence for the truth”.[113]
This is the humility of heart which recognizes that the word is always beyond
us, that “we are neither its masters or owners, but its guardians, heralds and
servants”.[114] This attitude of humble and awe-filled veneration of the word is
expressed by taking the time to study it with the greatest care and a holy fear
lest we distort it. To interpret a biblical text, we need to be patient, to put
aside all other concerns, and to give it our time, interest and undivided
attention. We must leave aside any other pressing concerns and create an
environment of serene concentration. It is useless to attempt to read a biblical
text if all we are looking for are quick, easy and immediate results.
Preparation for preaching requires love. We only devote periods of quiet time to
the things or the people whom we love; and here we are speaking of the God whom
we love, a God who wishes to speak to us. Because of this love, we can take as
much time as we need, like every true disciple: “Speak, Lord, for your servant
is listening” (1 Sam 3:9).

147. First of all, we need to be sure that we understand
the meaning of the words we read. I want to insist here on something which may
seem obvious, but which is not always taken into account: the biblical text
which we study is two or three thousand years old; its language is very
different from that which we speak today. Even if we think we understand the
words translated into our own language, this does not mean that we correctly
understand what the sacred author wished to say. The different tools provided by
literary analysis are well known: attention to words which are repeated or
emphasized, recognition of the structure and specific movement of a text,
consideration of the role played by the different characters, and so forth. But
our own aim is not to understand every little detail of a text; our most
important goal is to discover its principal message, the message which gives
structure and unity to the text. If the preacher does not make this effort, his
preaching will quite likely have neither unity nor order; what he has to say
will be a mere accumulation of various disjointed ideas incapable of inspiring
others. The central message is what the author primarily wanted to communicate;
this calls for recognizing not only the author’s ideas but the effect which he
wanted to produce. If a text was written to console, it should not be used to
correct errors; if it was written as an exhortation, it should not be employed
to teach doctrine; if it was written to teach something about God, it should not
be used to expound various theological opinions; if it was written as a summons
to praise or missionary outreach, let us not use it to talk about the latest
news.

148. Certainly, to understand properly the meaning of the
central message of a text we need to relate it to the teaching of the entire
Bible as handed on by the Church. This is an important principle of biblical
interpretation which recognizes that the Holy Spirit has inspired not just a
part of the Bible, but the Bible as a whole, and that in some areas people have
grown in their understanding of God’s will on the basis of their personal
experience. It also prevents erroneous or partial interpretations which would
contradict other teachings of the same Scriptures. But it does not mean that we
can weaken the distinct and specific emphasis of a text which we are called to
preach. One of the defects of a tedious and ineffectual preaching is precisely
its inability to transmit the intrinsic power of the text which has been
proclaimed.